A MAN was set on fire at a party at his house in Weymouth.

Horrified housemates have named the victim as 21-year-old David John Day and said he was doused with what was believed to be perfume and set alight by visitors as he listened to music alongside other revellers at his home in Ranelagh Road.

They described how his burns were so severe that he was left with ‘holes in his back’ where his skin blistered and said he momentarily ‘died’ on the way to hospital before being revived.

Stuart ‘Ozzy’ Smith jumped to his friend’s aid when he walked towards the kitchen in flames.

Mr Smith, 22, said: “By the time he got to the kitchen he collapsed and started crawling through trying to get to the shower at the back I think.

“I was stamping on him trying to get the flames out.”

Mr Smith said he managed to pull parts of his burning T-shirt off as it stuck to him and his jeans kept burning.

He said: “He was listening to his iPod before he was set on fire.

“He was alight for a few seconds before he realised.”

Fellow housemate Floyd Haywood, 19, said it was ‘a party that went horribly wrong’ at 2.30am on Saturday.

He said: “We were having a drink and then someone started screaming. The fire was just burning away and it left holes in his back.”

Floyd’s sister Chelcie Haywood, 18, called for an ambulance for her friend, known to them as ‘DJ’.

Miss Haywood also lives at the house and said she had run upstairs to get her brother when she heard there was a problem.

She said: “Before I got halfway down the stairs DJ was walking past in flames.

“It was disgusting as everybody was trying to watch him burn like it was some sort of sick joke.

“You could smell that they had poured perfume on him. You can still smell burnt skin in there.”

Miss Haywood and her friend Rachel Harper said visitors to the party were pushed out before the ambulance arrived.

She said: “I don’t want to go back in the house now. I’m scared and I feel really bad for DJ.”

Miss Haywood’s boyfriend Sean Young, 21, is another of the seven residents at the House of Multiple Occupancy close to the train station. He also saw his friend on fire.

He said: “We saw a perfume bottle that I think was used. DJ said: ‘I’m on fire’ and it was like a bonfire flame.

“It was like someone lit a rag and stuck it on a big fire and straight away you could see the blisters.

“His T-shirt melted onto his back. It was really, really horrible.

“He had big green blisters on top of his back about an inch wide and his hair was burnt so he'll be scarred for life.

“He apparently died but got brought back to life in the ambulance.”

Victim rushed to hospital

A spokesman for the Ambulance Service said the victim was rushed to the burns unit at Odstock Hospital in Salisbury. His condition was no longer life-threatening.

Odstock Hospital is renowned for its pioneering work in the field of plastic surgery and the treatment of burns.

Police are investigating the incident.

Anyone with information should get in contact with Dorset Police by calling 01305 222222 in confidence.