Angie Smith had just sat down for a steak dinner outside on her friend’s deck in July when a 4-foot fireball exploded from a firepot, whooshed toward her face and knocked her to the ground.

Brittany Holle was on her back deck with her husband in February, contemplating how they would prepare their deck and back yard for the spring when the fire from a firepot several feet away hit her back, catching her on fire.

The two are both teachers in the Troup County school system, and they are forever bonded by an experience they hope no one else will ever have to face.

“I didn’t know Brittany until after this happened to me, but now she’s my new best friend,” said Smith, a third-grade teacher at West Side Magnet School.

n Angie Smith

Smith and her husband had gone to the home of Sissy and Chris Cherry on Ware’s Cross Road to enjoy a cookout with them and their children. A firepot on the table was being used to ward off insects. When they sat down to eat about 9 p.m., Chris Cherry decided to relight the firepot, which had been extinguished earlier.

“Chris actually said, ‘Be careful; I’m about to light the firepot,’ ” Smith recalled. “Within seconds of him tilting the fire gel bottle toward the firepot, a 4-foot fireball just exploded toward me.

“I could see Chris’ eyes – he looked horrified – through the fire,” she said. “It went all the way through me, behind me, blowing me back on the ground.”

Chris Cherry and Smith’s husband, Bubba, used their hands to extinguish the fire on her body. Smith remembers thinking, “I’m going to die, and if I don’t die, I’ll lose my sight,” she said.

She remembers being in horrific pain as they drove her to the hospital, her skin still feeling like it was on fire.

“At one point I asked, ‘Am I still on fire?’ ” she said. “I screamed all the way to the hospital.”

At West Georgia Medical Center, medical personnel administered morphine to her. On a ventilator, she was then airlifted to a hospital in Augusta, where she stayed in the intensive-care unit for three days. Smith underwent surgery so doctors could clean and scrub the second-degree burns that were on 10 percent of her body. They also affixed cadaver and pig skin to repair the burned areas on her face, chest and arms.

She now travels back and forth to a wound-treatment facility in Austell to monitor her progress, and will return to her third-grade classroom Tuesday.

Smith now can’t be in the sun for 12 to 18 months, and then she will have to wear a sunscreen with an SPF of 45 or higher.

n Brittany Holle

Holle didn’t know Smith until she heard news on Facebook of her accident. She immediately reached out to Smith, letting her know she’d been in a similar situation.

Three months after she married, Holle and her husband were on their back deck in the evening, deciding where to plant flowers for the spring. Nearby, the cozy sound of a firepot crackled and sputtered, with a bottle of fire gel several feet away from it.

Holle, a fifth-grade teacher at Long Cane Elementary School, had her back to the firepot. She heard what sounded like a gunshot, and when she jumped to react, found herself on fire. The bottle of fire gel several feet from the fire had exploded, and the flames traveled toward her.

By instinct, she took off running toward the woods. Her husband caught up with her with a blanket and tackled her to extinguish the flames. As he cradled her and asked if she could see, her skin came off in his hands.

They found their way back to the house and extinguished the flames that had begun to engulf their deck. They put out the fire with their dog’s water bowl. Soon, as Holle made her way to the kitchen, she threw up, began shaking and fainted.

They made it to the hospital, though the 5 p.m. Vernon Street traffic made it difficult. At West Georgia Medical Center, medical personnel administered morphine as they cleaned the pine straw and dirt from her wounds. They would bandage her back and arms for about 20 seconds until she thought she would faint, would lay her down, then try the process again until she thought again she was going to faint.

She went to the same wound-treatment facility as Smith, where she had surgery to scrape her skin and place cadaver skin on her burned areas; she also had second-degree burns covering 10 percent of her body. Holle wore bandages for about a week. She was out of school from Feb. 17 to March 3.

n Firepot gel fuel recall

In June, the U.S. government issued a massive recall for a certain type of gel fuel in the wake of an accident similar to those of Smith and Holle. In that case, a 14-year-old boy poured gel into an already-lit wickless gel firepot candle. The recall was announced in cooperation with the manufacturer, Georgia-based Napa Home & Garden.

Both Smith and Holle want to be testaments that pouring fire gel into an already-lit firepot is not the only way people may become seriously injured from the gel.

In both Holle and Smith’s cases, circumstances were different. With Smith, fire gel was poured into a firepot that had been extinguished for awhile. In Holle’s case, the firepot flame and vapors traveled to a fire gel bottle several feet away.

They have since learned through experience that Napa is not the only gel causing injuries; one of them was using Napa gel, and the other used Patio Glow. Their research is showing that the citronella gel seems to be causing the bulk of injuries nationwide.

They have both filed their ordeals with the Consumer Safety Products Commission and have their stories published on its website. A CSPC investigator told Smith that the firepot gel incidents are his agency’s top priority right now.

Now, neither of them can be around a lit firepot. Holle said she now places a pillar candle where the gel normally would go.

They worry because firepots are still very popular, especially for wedding and birthday gifts. Holle had given her mother-in-law one at Christmas, and Smith previously had given one as a birthday present.

“They’re still at the height of their popularity,” Smith said. “And I’m sure there are still people in our circle of friends who think, ‘Oh, they weren’t careful enough,’ or ‘It won’t happen to me.’ ”

They hope their ordeals will show others that the soothing sounds of fire crackling in a firepot aren’t worth the risk.

“I can’t say for sure, but had I known what happened to Brittany at the time, I might have stepped away when the firepot was lit in front of me or asked them not to light it,” Smith said. “We want people to consider the dangers first.”

Natalie Shelton can be reached at nshelton@ lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 229.