A fund has been established at Woodforest National Bank at Gloucester’s Walmart to help the family of Scott Baker, a Gloucester electrician who was burned last week when gas fumes exploded while he was tending an outdoor trash fire at his home on Farys Mill Road.

Baker sustained third-degree burns to both of his legs and to his right hand, according to his mother-in-law, Marcia Pittman. He was taken by helicopter to MCV in Richmond, where he remains in the burn unit. She said he has received blood transfusions and has undergone surgery and is expected to require more transfusions and surgery in the coming days.

Baker has medical insurance but doesn’t have short-term disability, so he won’t have income to cover living expenses for several months, Pittman said. Baker and his wife, Emily, have five small children living at home. Even with insurance, "they’ll have a lot of hospital bills," said Pittman.

Pittman said there has been an outpouring of generosity in the community that is "unbelievable." Neighbors have pitched in to help care for the children and to take care of household chores such as cutting the grass, she said.

But Baker is anxious to come home and take care of those things himself.

"He’s a hard-working boy," said Pittman. "He’s just worried about getting back to work."

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