A Platteville man is sharing his experiences with fire as a way of teaching fire safety during holiday weekends and summer months.
Scott Travis was only 9-years-old when he had his first experience with fire. Attending the UW-Platteville homecoming parade, a friend of Travis threw a firecracker on one of the nearby floats.
Travis noticed the fire and climbed on the float to try and put it out. This is when he received third degree burns on about 60% of his body. “I’m very fortunate to be here today and it definitely changed my life from that moment on,” said Travis.
Decades later, in 2019, Travis had another incident. This time involving gasoline.
“I didn’t sense anything like this was going to happen, everything was just going too well and that’s when you let your guard down, you start to relax and it’s like oh my gosh what just happened,” said Travis.
Incidents like these are not uncommon though.