Irvine : 2 Burned, 1 Seriously, in Motor Home Mishap

A 30-year-old man was seriously burned Thursday when he and a companion tried to start a motor home that had run out of gas on the San Diego Freeway in Irvine and the engine backfired, causing an explosion, police and Fire Department officials said.

Dean Charles Miller, 30, of Quail Valley, was airlifted to the burn unit at the UCI Medical Center in Orange. Late Thursday he was listed in fair and stable condition with first- and second-degree burns over 20% of his body. A nursing official said the worst burns were on Miller’s hands and arms.

Irvine police Officer Richard Worcester, who investigated the accident, said Miller was driving a new 31-foot Cavalier motor home when he ran out of gas on the San Diego Freeway near Jeffrey Road shortly before 3 p.m. Joel Timothy Jamieson, 27, of Fullerton, was following Miller and the two left the motor home and went to get gasoline.

Worcester said the two men returned with a five-gallon container of gasoline but the vehicle did not start after they poured most of the gasoline into the tank. Miller and Jamieson then poured gasoline into the carburetor.

“When they tired to fire it up, the engine apparently backfired and ignited the whole engine. Miller was engulfed in flames,” Worcester said.

The police officer said Miller, who was holding the gasoline can at the time of the explosion, ran about 100 yards down the freeway and rolled in the grass and shrubs trying to extinguish the fire.

Jamieson also suffered light burns and was treated at the scene, Worcester said.

The $65,000 motor home was destroyed, an Orange County Fire Department spokesman said.