CHARLOTTE -- One-year-old Emily Hinton is in a medically induced coma, fighting for her life, after gasoline burned 40 percent of her body.
The Charlotte Fire Department said it was a “tragic accident.”
Tuesday afternoon, just two hours after Emily’s grandmother Belinda Carr posted a picture of Emily on Facebook with a caption, “it's a great day," a gas can in her backyard exploded.
Time Warner Cable News talked to Belinda’s cousin Debra Davidson.
She said, “We won't allow any negativity. It's positive. Everything's going to be fine. We are going to be fine. Emily will be Emily. We will love her and baby her, just like we always did.”
Belinda also suffered burn injuries because she tried to save Emily as soon as the can exploded.
Thomas Brake with the Mecklenburg County EMS talked to us about the seriousness of burn calls.
“To be on fire...that's one of the highest levels of calls we can have,” he explained. “Imminent danger. The person is... life and death, priority number one. We are going to get that fire out because while that fire's still going, the threat's still there, so we want to get that fire out immediately.”
Emily's now being treated at the Wake Forest Baptist Burn Center. Davidson told us Belinda will recover from her physical injuries, but she is just devastated.
She said, “That's her baby. That's her first granddaughter.”
But the family's not giving up.
“We are not going to be negative. It's not if she makes it. It's she will make it. It's going to be hard and in God's time,” Davidson said.
Emily’s dad Andy Hinton posted on his Facebook this message:
“We are having a really rough time wrapping our minds around all this... be thankful for what you have everyday because it can be taken away in a blink... my beautiful baby will never be the same.. but I will take her however I can get her and love her like she has never been loved.. please pray for our family... thanks to everyone for their support.”
To find out how you can help the Hinton family, click here.