KEY POINTS:
The parents of a Tauranga dad badly burned in an explosion say their son will have to use every ounce of his fighting spirit to battle through some of the worst injuries doctors have seen in 10 years.
Barrie Gardner, 29, was removing linoleum from the floor of a house he owns in Katikati on Saturday night when fumes from paint thinner he was using ignited and engulfed him in a fireball.
He escaped the blaze by smashing through a window but suffered severe burns to 80 per cent of his body. He is now fighting for his life at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital.
David and Lorraine Gardner are staying at the hospital with other family members, including their son's partner Serina Golder, 27, and his eight-week-old baby daughter, Tahlia.
Mrs Gardner said family have been arriving from all over the country to lend their support and one of Mr Gardner's three sisters will arrive at the hospital tomorrow from Ireland.
Doctors treating him have told the family that if he survives, his burns will be some of the worst they have seen anyone overcome in 10 years.
"They have told us that everything has to go right for him to come through. It's all touch and go and will be for a long time," said Mrs Gardner.
Despite the seriousness of her son's condition, Mrs Gardner said her son is not the type to give up easily - something she hopes will help him battle the odds he is currently facing.
"It was a terrible accident but he is a fighter. He's holding his own at the moment and that's all we can ask for," she said.
Mr Gardner has already had two operations and is expected to have another one today.
While he is in an induced coma his mother says he responds to voices and wiggles his feet when he hears his baby daughter crying. She said the family had received "amazing support" from her son's friends. Some of them have made the trip to Middlemore to help the family in any way they can.
"He's got so many friends, he is just the kind of guy everybody loves. They have all been saying: 'Oh, that bugger will survive. He's so stubborn, he'll make it'," she said.
A group of friends will also be going to Katikati this weekend to finish the renovations Mr Gardner was working on at the time of his accident.
He and his partner, Serina, bought the house in Katikati just before the birth of their daughter and were fixing it up with an eye to eventually letting it. Mr Gardner had almost finished the job when he was injured in the explosion.
Before the accident, Mrs Gardner said her son was working as a tools and car paint salesman at Autolink Distributors and that he and his partner also managed the Greenpark Motel on Cameron Rd.
She described her son as someone who loves sports - he is an avid fisherman and he and his partner loved scuba diving. Mr Gardner also loved the thrill of mountain biking, snowboarding and surfing.
"He just loves doing all of those adrenaline-type sports and went hard at all of them," she said.
Once he is stronger, Mr Gardner will begin undergoing what is likely to be a lifetime of skin graft operations, something that isn't helped by the fact New Zealand suffers from a shortage of donors.
Mrs Gardner said the family has offered to donate their own skin - but doctors have told them it is illegal to do so.
"We would all give some but apparently it is not possible," she said.
For the time being she says the family will wait and hope Mr Gardner can fight through the battle of his life.
"We've just got to take it hour by hour and day by day really. This will be the roughest roller- coaster of our lives. Each day will be full of ups and downs."
- NZH