Man ‘suddenly’ burst into flames after girlfriend poured liquid on him, PA police say

A Pennsylvania woman set her boyfriend on fire during an argument, causing him to sustain significant burns, police said.

Police responded to a home in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24 after multiple callers reported a man on fire, according to a criminal complaint.

Inside the home, an officer located Floyd Hanson, 43, being treated for burns by firefighters. The man’s girlfriend, Cecilia Perez, 47, was also at the scene.

Perez, the tenant, told the officer Hanson had been cleaning a cut with rubbing alcohol when he lit a marijuana joint, causing his hand to catch on fire, police said. Perez said she threw a sheet on Hanson — who she said was intoxicated — in order to extinguish the flames, according to police.

But before being taken to a hospital, Hanson — who had “significant” burns on his arms, torso and back — refuted Perez’s recounting of events, police said.

“She tried to kill me,” he said, according to police.

An attorney for Perez could not immediately be reached for comment by McClatchy News.

After being treated for first- and second-degree burns, Hanson told a detective he and Perez had been drinking and “arguing about past events” before the incident.

Hanson said he was sitting on a living room couch when Perez doused him in a “green liquid,” police said. Then he “suddenly” erupted in flames, according to police.

He tried patting the flames out and ripped his clothes from his body before collapsing in pain, he told police.

Detectives arrested Perez on Sept. 25, and she confessed to pouring rubbing alcohol on Hanson but not to starting the fire. She said she had been “triggered” after Hanson received a phone call from another girlfriend and “wanted him to feel the hurt and pain,” police said.

An upstairs neighbor told a detective he heard a woman shout “I’ll kill you (expletive)” and “you’re going to die,” police said.

Perez was charged with aggravated arson, terroristic threats and recklessly endangering another person, among other charges, police said.

This story was originally published September 27, 2023 at 1:24 PM with the headline "Man ‘suddenly’ burst into flames after girlfriend poured liquid on him, PA police say."