Man On Fire Caught On Camera Crossing Brooklyn Street

A 22-year-old man accidentally set himself on fire inside a vacant Brooklyn storefront Tuesday as he dried tobacco leaves for his upcoming hookah binge, authorities and witnesses said.

Exclusive video acquired by NYDailynews.com shows the unidentified man running from the McDonald Ave. address under the elevated F line near 18th Ave. in Borough Park — his shirt and pants burning — at 1:40 p.m.

A few moments earlier, a small explosion rocked the basement of the empty store, witnesses said. 

Consumed by the flames, the hapless victim crossed the street and nearly ran into a woman before continuing down the block, stunned witnesses said. 

“Stop, drop and roll!” another man screamed at him as panicked neighbors approached with fire extinguishers to snuff the blaze out, witnesses recalled. 

Paramedics rushed the man to Maimonides Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition Tuesday afternoon. He was later transferred to Cornell Hospital’s burn unit for further treatment. 

“He was really badly burned,” an FDNY source said, adding that fire marshals were investigating the cause of the explosion. Neighbors said the man had planned to open a hookah bar at the location. 

He was preparing materials for his hookah pipe when “something ignited and caused a flash fire,” a police source said. 

The victim may have been using acetone and coconut oil while drying the tobacco leaves and preparing his hookah, neighbors said.

The fumes from the chemicals ignited with the pilot light from the enclosed basement’s water heater, they said.

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