BUTLER TWP — A township man suffered serious burns to his hands after the camper he was trying to start ignited with him inside.

Owner Allen McClymonds was taken by Butler Ambulance to Butler Memorial Hospital once firefighters arrived at 1:58 p.m. at 448 Whitestown Road. He reportedly was transferred to West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh.

"He was trying to start it and we think the carburetor caught fire," said Selene McClymonds, Allen McClymonds' wife.

"He yelled to me, 'Selene, come out! The car's on fire!'"

The small Coachman camper was gutted by the flames, and heat from the fire damaged siding and the roof of the garage next to the camper.

"We were all worried about the garage. We're lucky," said Selene McClymonds.

Firefighters from the Meridian Volunteer Fire Department, assisted by Butler Ambulance and Butler Township Police, extinguished the flames within about five minutes, but spent about an hour on the scene extinguishing hot spots.

A neighbor's garden hose was stretched across the driveway after McClymonds apparently tried to contain the blaze before firefighters arrived.

The camper had been unused for about a year, according to Selene McClymonds, and the couple had borrowed the neighbor's battery charger to get it started.

"We were just going to back it up to cut the grass around it," she said.