A 45-year-old man suffered serious burn injuries are lighting a cigarette near a can of gasoline which caught fire Tuesday.
The victim and a friend were working on a lawn mower which they had just put gas into it before setting the can on the ground.
According to the friend's account to police, both were sitting in the backyard having a cigarette when his friend got up walked away. All he saw immediately after was his friend on fire. He wrapped him in a tarp and rolled him on the ground, eventually extinguishing the fire, police said.
The man was flown to the Burn Center at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston suffering serious burns over half his body.
The exact cause remains under investigation.