A man was burned in a massive fireball at Southampton's Whaler Inn (pictured left). The lower section of the building was badly damaged and a beach shop destroyed.

The blast occurred after the man accidentally set his arm on fire while testing a lamp for a beach party. Flammable liquid from the lamp dripped on a table cloth and ignited 40 other torches. "The whole thing went up and then the fire started," said eye-witness Jesse Jupiter, a doctor from Boston. "There was a lot of chemical smoke."

A Whaler Inn employee threw a wet towel on the injured man ? preventing his burns from being more serious.

Meanwhile, shopkeeper Josie Wood was also breathing a huge sigh of relief. Normally she would have been in the week-old Beach Resort Shop when the explosion occurred. By chance she was in the adjoining Fairmont Southampton Princess.

"If I had not stopped at the hotel I would have been in there. I would never have got out," she told .

Firemen were alerted to the blast shortly after 10 a.m.

Bermuda Fire Service Lieutenant Dana Lovell said four of his men equipped with breathing gear fought the blaze.

"The first units arrived within ten minutes. They were met with a walkway underneath the restaurant fully involved with fire and heavy black smoke."

"The property sustained severe heat, smoke and fire damage, in particular to the walkway, gift shop and storage areas," he said.He said the cause of the fire was still under investigation, but it was not believed to have been set maliciously.

"One individual did receive burns, but they were not believed to be life threatening," Lt. Lovell said. understands the injured man was a caterer in his 20s who had been brought to Bermuda to set up a pirates party for IBM at the beach.

He was testing a "Tiki-lamp" when the accident happened.

"They had about 40 of these torches lined up on a table," said Dr. Jupiter. "I understand the young man was testing it and some of the liquid leaked on to his arm. A towel woman saved him and threw the torch into the sand."

Alvera Darrell, a towel lady at Whaler Inn for seven years, said a strong gust of wind fanned the flames which quickly became out of control. She said the skin on the man's arm was burned because he was only wearing a short sleeve shirt.

She took a soaking wet towel and threw it on the fire and told him to roll his arm around in the sand.

"I pulled him away from everybody out to the front of the porch.The liquid from one lantern fell on the floor and the whole thing went up. When the fire reached the 40 flammable bottles there was a giant burst of flame."

Ms Darrell and ten other staff at the resort attempted to put the fire out with a garden hose and fire extinguisher, but to no avail.

"The fire was too powerful," she said.

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