Irish woman hospitalised with third degree burns after dress catches fire at Spanish wedding

An Irish woman attending a wedding in a Spanish tourist hotspot was hospitalised after her dress caught fire last week.

The woman was celebrating a friend’s wedding near Nerja’s Balcón de Europa in the eastern Costa del Sol resort when the freak accident occurred. She was seriously injured when the dress she was wearing caught fire on decorative candles.

The 29-year-old woman was rushed to the Regional Hospital in Malaga before being transferred to the serious burns unit of the Hospital Vigen de Sevilla.

According to SUR, the incident happened at around 11.50pm last Thursday as the guests celebrated the marriage in a ground floor room of a holiday rental apartment. 

Decorative candles had been placed and lit in the bathroom, and “for reasons unknown and under investigation”, the woman was engulfed in flames within seconds. 

Fellow guests found her semi-conscious and badly injured and quickly sounded the alarm. 

It is understood she underwent an initial operation at the Regional Hospital in Malaga to treat the third-degree burns to 70% of her body. She was later transferred to the serious burns unit at Hospital Vigen de Sevilla where she remains for further treatment.