A woman in Osasco, São Paulo, died after suffering burns on 90 percent of her body after an ethanol-related explosion. Her seven-month-old baby survived, despite burns on 50 percent of his body. Photo: Aloisio Mauricio/Fotoarena/Folhapress
“By the time I realized what was happening, my entire body was on fire,” says Wiviane Lima, 23, who suffered full-body burns after trying to cook a pot of rice using ethanol as fuel as a cost-saving measure. The accident occurred in the Central-West city of Abadia de Goiás at the end of August, but Wiviane is by no means the only one to have put her life at risk amid an eye-watering increase in gas prices.
In Brazil and several other Latin American countries, the majority of families use recyclable domestic gas cylinders known as botijões (singular botijão) to fuel their stoves. Recent hikes in gas prices have made these canisters near unaffordable for poorer households around Brazil.
In a video that went viral on social media, Wiviane begged for help to buy milk for her three young children and construction material to rebuild her house, which was engulfed in flames during the cooking incident.
“My entire house caught fire, and we didn’t have much, to begin with,” said Wiviane’s husband, Weverson Lima, to news website G1. He has taken leave from work to stay...
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