17-year-old dies of burns after man throws gasoline on backyard fire, Texas cops say

A 17-year-old girl died after she suffered severe burns when Texas police say a man threw gasoline on a backyard fire.

Madison Lewis was a senior at Jacksboro High School, located about 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth.

“To know Maddy was to love her. I cannot remember a time when I was having a bad day and Maddy didn’t cheer me up,” one person wrote on Facebook.

But her life changed on Dec. 16.

Lewis was in the backyard of a home in Jacksboro around 12:15 a.m., a Jan. 9 news release from the Jacksboro Police Department said.

Lewis was there with others and a small fire was burning inside a metal barrel. A 23-year-old man, Sebastian Lindsey, wanted to make the fire bigger, police said, so he picked up a can of gasoline and threw it on the fire.

“The gasoline and fire traveled across the barrel, catching Madison’s hair and clothes on fire,” police said.

Others at the home were scared to call 911 because there was alcohol involved, so they drove Lewis to the hospital, police said.

She was then air-lifted to another hospital and treated for burns that covered most of her body, according to police.

Lewis was placed into a medically-induced coma and had undergone multiple surgeries, her mother, Ericca Hammond, told KDFW.

“There’s nothing in the world more that I want and need than for my baby girl to be okay and to live a life. She’s 17 years old,” Hammond told the news outlet.

On Jan. 7, Lewis succumbed to her injuries, police said.

Lindsey has been charged with manslaughter and, as of Jan. 9, is being held with no bond, police said. McClatchy News could not find an attorney listed for Lindsey.

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