Tim Stobert from Mitchell sustained burns to 90% of his body after trying to light a fire in a garage wood stove on Saturday.

That according to son-in-law Neil Krahn who says it's a regular occurrence for Stobert to get coffee for the family at 7 a.m. on a Saturday and then warm up the garage so they can sit outside together. Krahn adds shortly after 7 a.m. on March 5 he heard his father-in-law run into the house screaming, 'I need help, I need help!'

"So I jumped out of bed and I came running up the stairs," recalls Krahn. "I just saw smoke and fire everywhere and my first thought was to grab the fire extinguisher. I started putting out the trail of fire and as I followed the trail of fire I found my father-in-law in the upstairs bathroom burned, basically burned alive, no clothes left on him, all his skin peeling off, a horrible scene."

Tim Stobert (Photo credit: GoFundMe Page)Stobert was transported by STARS Air Ambulance to the Health Science Centre in Winnipeg and he is currently in a chemically induced coma. Krahn notes Stobert was alert at the house and while being transported to HSC. Krahn says Stobert did better in his first surgery than the doctors thought he may have, but his condition is critical.

"They skin grafted his hands and they skin grafted his feet and a quarter of his back. They said he actually did really well for that. So now it's basically a wait and see, then Wednesday is his next surgery and it will be surgeries for up to two years, they say, they're thinking [that] because he's burned so bad." 

Krahn notes the doctors explained they are using donor skin for grafting because Stobert does not have enough of his own and they're trying to trick the body into thinking it's healing before infection sets in. He adds Stobert will be in a coma for the next six to eight weeks. 

"It will be a long road ahead but we just need everyone to pray for him and hope everything works out," notes Krahn. "They say he's a really tough man to be going through all that and they didn't expect he'd take that much surgery on [Tuesday]. So everyone's prayers are working."

A GoFundMe Page has been started for the family. Krahn says the hotel bill is about $200 a night and Stobert's wife, who was working at Superstore for 23 years, quit a week ago and Krahn is not sure whether she has any benefits.

Krahn adds Stobert is a well loved man in the community of Mitchell.

"He is well loved by all the children in Mitchell, everyone calls him Papa. I've been getting a lot of text messages from concerned mothers because, I guess little children had heard it was the house, and they all know the house because he picks up all the kids in the morning and drives them to school and then picks them up after school and drops them off. So they all call him Papa, so he's like everybody's little Grandpa around here. He's such a good hearted man and did not deserve this."

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