A MAN has relived the harrowing moment he suffered life-threatening burns from an electrical fireball at a factory.

Electrician Gordon Metcalf, 70, from Maryport, and an apprentice were about to clean debris out of a damaged fuse box at a plant in Wigton, when a ball of fire shot out, setting their clothes alight on 13 September 2006.

The grandfather-of-two sustained 47 per cent burns and was treated by the North West Ambulance Service and the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS).

He said: “I remember being in the ambulance, wrapping cling film around us and screaming for blue murder and begging them to put a needle in us.”

Mr Metcalf then spent the next five months in hospital.

This summer, Mr Metcalf's grandson Daniel cycled the coast to coast with his school cycling club and raised more than £700 for GNAAS.