GoFundMe page started for student badly burned in Travelers Rest explosion

TRAVELERS REST, S.C. — A GoFundMe page has been set up to help cover expenses of a 20-year-old North Greenville University student who was badly burned following a workplace explosion in Travelers Rest last week.

(To make an online donation, click here. Note: ALL of the proceeds will go to the Hyatt family as his church will be paying the GoFundMe processing fees.)

Joey Hyatt, a Christian Studies major and a newlywed, was attempting to start a forklift inside a metal storage container at Miracle Hill where he worked as a donation attendant at the time of the explosion. One eyewitness told the Tribune the blast, which was heard at city hall and various other locations throughout and beyond town, lifted the storage container off of the ground.

Hyatt, who suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns on 40 percent of his body, was airlifted to JMS Augusta Burn Center. He is expected to remain at the center for at least six weeks as he undergoes extensive skin grafts, according to his friend, Todd Smith, who started the GoFundMe page.

"Since both Nikki and Joey's family will have to be at the burn center in Augusta for the foreseeable future, we want to help them with any outstanding costs that might arise due to this situation," Smith wrote.

According to a Facebook post by North Greenville University representatives, Hyatt's family also asks that those wishing to help to consider donating blood to a local blood bank.

"Throughout the course of Joey's treatment, he will need lots of blood," representatives wrote. "Although the blood you donate will not go directly to Joey, it will help fill the ongoing needs of the blood banks in the community.

The fundraising goal of the GoalFundMe page is currently set at $50K, with more than $10K having already been raised at the time of this writing.

To make an online donation, click here.

Related on the Tribune: NGU student flown to burn center following Travelers Rest explosion