PHOENIX — Police say that an Arizona man was severely burned after several grocery bags filled with gasoline ignited inside a car while he was on the way to fill up a disabled vehicle.

According to KSAZ, police responded to a fiery crash in a neighborhood in northwest Phoenix on Thursday. When they arrived at the scene, they found a car engulfed in flames and a man in his 40s nearby with significant burns.

An unidentified man at the scene told police that the burning car was his and it was stolen by a man who burned him with an “unknown object,” according to KTVK. He told police that he and his friend pursued the stolen car and found it burning at the intersection.

Police later determined that the story had inconsistencies, and an investigation determined that the robbery never happened.

The burn victim eventually admitted to police that he had asked the owner of the vehicle and his friend to get gasoline to fill up a different car. After filling multiple heavy-duty plastic grocery bags with gasoline, the pair drove to the victim’s house and picked him up, according to KTVK.

On the men’s way to the disabled car, the bags ignited, engulfing the vehicle in flames.

The burn victim is in extremely critical condition, and another person suffered minor burns, KTVK reported.

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No arrests have been made, and an investigation is ongoing, police said.

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