Girl burnt in paraffin lamp explosion

JEANNE Natasha Rickert (7) from Bethanie sustained serious burns to her face and hand when a paraffin lamp exploded on Monday.

Rickert is being treated in the Keetmanshoop State Hospital.
Her grandmother, Elizabeth Rickert (53), yesterday said the lamp and a plastic bottle filled with paraffin burst into flames while she was refilling the lamp by candlelight.
‘I placed the plastic bottle filled with paraffin on the table after I had refilled the lamp, but the next moment I heard a bang, with my granddaughter running screaming from the house,’ she said.
‘Since my childhood I have been refilling paraffin lamps, but this hadn’t happened to me before.’
She said when she bought the paraffin it looked ‘like water’. She asked the shopkeeper whether it was really paraffin and was assured that it was fine.
When contacted yesterday, shop owner Izane Van Der Berg said more than 300 litres of the paraffin branded Parasol had been sold to date without any other incidents reported.
The supplier of the paraffin, Cymot, said the paraffin was from South Africa and was an approved product specifically manufactured for heating purposes.
Cymot sales representative Jack Meyer said an investigation was underway to check whether the explosion could be linked to the paraffin.
The local Police have sent the remains of the lamp and the bottle to Windhoek for forensic testing.