A 38-YEAR-OLD man is in hospital with severe burns today after an accident at his home in Wigan.

The man, who lives with his parents at St David's Court, Aspull, had been cleaning some tools in a garage with petrol-soaked cloths which he took into the house and threw on an open fire.

One of the cloths fell on to the hearth and he picked it up, intending to throw it out of a window.

As he opened the window the flames from the cloth intensified and caused extensive damage to the living room of the house and burning the man's face and hands.

He was taken to the Wigan Infirmary and has now been transferred to a burns unit at Whiston Hospital, Liverpool.