LAKE CITY, Fla. – A Lake City woman was arrested and in jail Monday after police said she set her boyfriend on fire.
Stephanie Britton, 37, was charged with two counts of aggravated battery. Police said the victim was a 72-year-old man who was rushed to a hospital late Saturday night with first-degree burns to his head, back and hands.
On Monday night, the man — Herman Humphries — spoke with News4JAX. He’s happy to be out of the hospital, and he said he was happy to be alive and doing OK.
“Being on fire is not a good feeling, I’ll put to you that way,” Humphries said.
Humphries told officers, investigators said, that his live-in girlfriend set him on fire by pouring rubbing alcohol onto his head and then igniting the alcohol with a cigarette lighter.
“I was getting ready to go outside because I was trying to get away from her. I didn’t want to be around her. And this is where she threw the alcohol on me right here and set me on fire,” Humphries said.
A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said what happened to Humphries is very unusual.
“You hear gunshots around here and you hear about people being stabbed,” the neighbor said. “But I’ve never heard about someone being set on fire, especially right next door.”
Humphries told police that in the moments prior, he was in the bathroom when Britton set a mattress on fire. He said that he put out the fire before walking out onto the screened-in front porch where he says Britton set him on fire.
Investigators said there was a strong smell of rubbing alcohol throughout the house, and they said the sheets on the burned mattress were still wet with a substance that smelled like rubbing alcohol.
Investigators said they also found an empty bottle of rubbing alcohol near where Humphries was set on fire.
Although Britton was only charged with aggravated battery, the state attorney’s office could upgrade the charges to attempted murder.