Daniel Pomerleau’s family and friends are reeling from his death from burns he sustained after gasoline was poured on a campfire.
Pomerleau, 17, originally of Norridgewock, died at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston, said Sgt. Ken Grimes of the state Fire Marshal’s Office.
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He was a senior at Skowhegan Area High School and wanted to go to college to become a diesel mechanic, said his second cousin, Michael Bruce, 24, of Madison. Pomerleau lived with Bruce for the past three years.
Pomerleau and a 17-year-old friend from Norridgewock poured gas on a campfire Saturday evening at the fire pit behind Bruce’s house on East Madison Road.
Grimes said the cloud of vapors created by the gasoline ignited. The flames caught Pomerleau.
“It didn’t burn off quick. When it got on him, it just kept burning,” Bruce said. Most of his body was burned severely.
The friend helped to put out the fire on Pomerleau. It was “just a horrific accident, and they were best friends,” Bruce said.
A LifeFlight helicopter took Pomerleau to Maine Medical Center in Portland, then to the Shriners hospital in Boston. The friend was taken to Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan and released.
Bruce, who works at Randy’s Auto Repair in Skowhegan, said Pomerleau was often at the shop. He worked there after school and on weekends. He liked “loud exhaust,” Bruce said, and snowmobiling, four-wheeling and fishing.
“I’m going to miss him, and I love him,” Bruce said.
A friend, Quentin Frigon of Bingham, said Pomerleau enjoyed being outdoors and playing football. “It’s a terrible, terrible accident. He was a good kid, always had a smile on his face,” he said.
Brandon Berry of West Forks said Pomerleau looked up to Bruce and was “always joking around, making people laugh.”
He earned his driver’s license this summer, he said, “and he fixed up a truck at the garage that he was very proud of.” He was “an innocent little kid with a lot of life ahead of him,” Berry said.
Debbie Clark, coordinator for the crisis team at Skowhegan Area High School, said counselors will be available for students today, and the schedule will be kept as normal as possible.
Superintendent Brent Colbry said the district will support those affected “in any way we can.”
“This is obviously a tremendous tragedy for any family and any community,” he said.
Madison Fire Chief Roger Lightbody Sr. said a “critical stress debriefing” would be held Monday night to help the ambulance, police and fire personnel who were at the scene Saturday night.
“It gives them a chance to talk about it whatever they’ve got to do,” Lightbody said.
Although the fire is not suspicious, the Fire Marshal’s Office continues to investigate, as it does in the case of any serious injury related to fire.
“It’s a horrific incident that’s happened, but if there’s any message to be learned from this, it’s never, ever pour gasoline or any other sort of ignitable onto a fire,”‘ Grimes said.
A Facebook page, “In Loving Memory of Daniel Pomerleau,” was created. As of 3 p.m. Monday, it had 476 members.
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