Air Force flare seriously injures woman

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - A discovery in the desert turned dangerous for one Arizona woman, when she found a strange object near her home that later exploded in her face.

The explosion caused serious burns for the woman, and the object was actually an Air Force flare. The 49-year-old victim, who lives in a small community call Fort Thomas in Graham County, was taken to the Arizona Burn Center in Phoenix for treatment.

The woman, identified as Diane Briscoe, has reportedly been in a medically-induced coma for a week.

How the flare got to the location is still a mystery.

"It's the worst feeling in your life," said Becky Beeks.

"We have several small children that play in the area, they are around my grandma's house. It could have happened to anyone," said Natasha Pearson.

After Briscoe found the flare, she reportedly touched it with a knife. The flare then exploded at point-blank range, burning Briscoe from head to toe.

"She was just cinged from her whole area from her arms, both her arms to her hands, a little bit of her chest is burned, her legs from her knees down is pretty badly burned," said Beeks. She went on to say the flare was not big, that its size was a bit smaller than a brick.

Beeks said she tried to keep Briscoe's composure.

"Got her clothes cut off her, put her in a warm shower, and as warm as she could handle it. Because we didn't want it ice cold," said Beeks.

Briscoe has undergone two skin graft surgeries. Now, her family can only do one thing: wait.

"Just not knowing how or what to do is kind of the hardest part," said Pearson. "We want to know something, we want to know what to do, we want to help her but we can't do anything right now."

Briscoe's family said she is looking at a "months long" recovery process.

The Air Force, meanwhile, has confirmed that the flair is theirs, but they don't know yet as to how it got to where it was found.