Tangaroa Yorke is a teacher-aide at Lynmore School in Rotorua. Photo / Supplied
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
A Rotorua man, who is about to become a dad for the first time, is in hospital after a freak accident with a fish smoker left him covered in methylated spirits and on fire.
Tangaroa Yorke, a 20-year-old teacher-aide from Rotorua, is the main source of income for him and his partner, and also offers financial support to his aunty.
He will be recovering in Waikato Hospital for two weeks.
Last Saturday Yorke was at his brother's home in Katikati when his brothers brought home fish, which they decided to smoke that evening.
Yorke's brother pulled the lid off the fish smoker and the fire "blazed out of it" Yorke said.
He tried to smother the fire, first by putting the lid back on. When that failed, he took the lid off and tried to cover it with a plank of wood, then tried blowing it.
"I just remember walking past the smoker and I think he knocked it, and the methylated spirits that was on fire spilt over my left leg," Yorke said.
As the days pass, the pain relief has become more effective and his dizziness, headaches and high temperature had begun to ease.
Moving out of bed is agonising but he walked for the first time on Thursday - practice for the goal he has for the birth of his first child; a baby boy, due on August 23.
"I'm excited, I can't wait to meet him.
"I want to be able to just walk into the room and meet him."
Yorke is the main source of income for the couple and also provided financial support to his aunty, who he lived with.
Yorke works at Lynmore Primary School, and began there when he was the head boy at Rotorua Lakes High and tutored kapa haka during free timetable slots.
He was re-employed at the school after a year at Toi-Ohomai Polytechnic as a teacher aide.
The main part of the job is working alongside students who need extra support in the classroom, as well as helping those who are having a bad day.
"He's just fabulous, to have a young man that's a great role model like that in the school. The kids absolutely adore him," principal Lorraine Taylor said.
The easy-going hard worker did everything with a smile, Taylor said.
"When he rang me, he was most concerned that his Lynmore School sweatshirt was burnt."
Taylor said a video he posted of him walking for the first time with a walking aid, fully bandaged, was done with a big smile despite the pain.
Taylor set up a Givealittle page for Yorke to help with the transport costs for whānau to visit him, supplies for his baby, and food and other essential items for his whānau while he can't financially support them.
Yorke said he was humbled by the response of the community to the accident, with the page already raising almost $5000 since Thursday.