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On Friday, July 5, Samantha Graham and her fiancé Philip Wright were on the water with their child and a family friend waiting to watch some fireworks when a "traumatic freak accident" turned a fun family event into a nightmare.
The incident reportedly happened while they were gassing up at High Point Marina in Spotsylvania County.
According to Graham's mother, Philip suffered serious burns to his lower body during the fire and will be unable to continue working for around a month, while her daughter was burned on the majority of her legs, arm, and fingers.
The former was rushed and the latter airlifted to the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond for treatment and evaluation of their critical injuries. Three others suffered less severe, largely cosmetic injuries.
"After scrubbing her burns it was determined that her burn areas are too large to receive the new fake skin so the doctors are evaluating her wounds closely each day to see if she will need to have skin grafts while keeping them clean from risk of infection," her mother wrote.
According to Graham, the parents were avid, experienced boaters who previously enjoyed taking the children out on the water before the fire razed their vessel.
Following the fire, a fundraising campaign was set up on behalf of the family as Wright remains out of work amid his ongoing recovery.
"Philip does not have medical insurance; however, right now the kids are just asking for help with regular bills and monthly expenses for them and their kids while Philip cannot work," Graham wrote.
"They lost the boat and everything that was on it like their fishing stuff, but none of that matters ... They thankfully did not lose their lives."
Both Wright and Graham continue to recover from their burn injuries at the hospital.
The GoFundMe can be found here.
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