This is what's left of the lawn mower Jason Baird was riding when it exploded and caught fire just before five o'clock Thursday evening.

"Commercial Lawn Service was cutting grass at the Westchester Apartment complex, and there was a fire that involved equipment and a gentleman was injured.", says Assistant Chief Andy Frost of the Austintown Fire Department.

The 27-year-old is listed as a forward on the now league-less Youngstown SteelHounds hockey team, apparently working as a landscaper in the off-season.  Frost says one of the tenants in a near-by apartment noticed the smoke and fire and called 9-1-1, crews were able to put out the blaze, but Baird was badly burned.  One eyewitness remembers what she saw:

"I heard this screaming and I looked out my back porch and there was a man engulfed in flames, and he was just on fire....I went outside my sliding glass door and told him to drop, and he was just in shock, he was just running aimlessly."

OSHA is in from Cleveland to investigate the accident, and figure out what caused the explosion.  Assistant Chief Frost says Baird was not re-fueling at the time.  And the folks at Do-Cut True Value say they've never heard of riding mowers just exploding-- but say any number of things could have sparked on such a hot day.

"You could have had a small fuel leak where it was dripping on to something hot, you know on a lot of the commercial units the gas tank is below everything else, but some of them are pressurized, and it could spray gasoline onto the hot engine.", says Eric Cromwell

Baird remains in critical condition in the Akron Burn Unit.