Woman Seriously Burned in Gas Station Fire

Fire investigators are trying to determine what happened Thursday night when a woman was severely burned in a fire at a gas station in Riverview. It happened shortly after 10:00 p.m. at the Kangaroo gas station at 1005 Hixson Pike, while a woman and her boyfriend were putting gas in their Jeep Cherokee.

A store cashier told firefighters that he saw fire break out at the pump next to the Jeep, so he hit the cut-off switch to the pump and called 911. The woman's clothes caught on fire and she screamed for help. The clerk and another employee then grabbed a fire extinguisher and put the fire out.

The victim was Samantha Lawrence, 20. When Chattanooga firefighters arrived on the scene moments later, they got Lawrence to sit down so they could apply dressings to her burns. They said she was suffering from 2nd and 3rd degree burns to approximately 30% of her body.

She was first taken to Erlanger Medical Center and later airlifted to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia.

It's not clear what caused the fire. Chattanooga police are assisting fire investigators on the case.