A TEENAGE apprentice welder left with horrific burns after a fireball explosion at work has told how he begged nurses to let him die.

Dwayne Bell was just 17 years old when he was turned into a “human fireball” after a nightmare workplace accident at the steel yard where he was training.

As an apprentice welder at a steelworks in Wigan, Dwayne was asked to perform the routine task of burning rubbish.

But disaster struck when he added paint thinner to try and ignite some damp wood in the metal barrel.

He failed to notice sparks which had already caught under the wood, which caused the cylinder filled with paper and cardboard to explode with flames.

“I was standing in the middle of a massive flame. As soon as I felt the whoosh of heat I shut my eyes as I didn’t want to go blind,” he told Manchester Evening News.

“It was like a bomb exploding in my face.”

Dwayne, now aged 22, shared his story to raise awareness for other young trainees about the grave dangers they could face at work.

Pictures reveal the full extent of his devastating injuries, with burns covering eight per cent of his body.

His face and hands were completely scorched, left red and blistered with third degree burns which melted parts of his nose and ears.

Colleagues ran to his aide, putting out his flaming clothes which had caught ablaze.

In shock, he asked them to take a photo of his face, which was covered in feathers from his jacket, which had split open from the force of the blast.

Airlifted to hospital, his injuries were so severe that he was put in an induced coma for one week, waking up in “indescribable pain”.

“I looked at the nurses and I just begged them to let me die. I couldn’t see a future,” he painfully recalled.

Recovering at home after he was finally released from hospital, the young trainee described the pain as a “living nightmare”.

He suffered through three skin grafts over the next year, with his hands still badly damaged.

While he has returned to welding with another firm, his scarring limits how long he can work with the heat and vibration from power tools.

Now, he hopes his story could help other young apprentices in a similar position.

Dwayne later sued the steelyard over his injuries with Express Solicitors securing an out-of-court settlement.