of teterboro, departures there are delayed up to an hour because of volume. an ecigarette exploded in a man's possible. he was working at a store at grand central terminal when his pants suddenly and literally caught on fire!
he is in the hospital tonight for burns. cbs 2's christine sloan spoke with his coworkers. reporter: it looks like a bomb went off in this store clerk's pants. an explosion in otis gooding's pocket as he works behind the
register of this wine store inside grand central terminal. you can see the flames, the sparks, flying his pocket where coworkers say kept an ecigarette with a battery. all of a sudden i thought he had fireworks in his pocket.
reporter: gooding was standing behind that cash register right next to john lee. lee says he could feel the heat from the fireball. then we realized it was a evapor cigarette, that high- powered high voltage battery.
reporter: emergency crews on the scene at central sellers take gooding to the hospital. here's what's left of the ecigarette and battery, in pieces charred. john carson spoke to gooding on the phone.
what did he say to you? um, well, he just said his, um, leg and his arm has second- degree burns. reporter: gooding's attorney sanford rubenstein says his client actually suffered third-degree burns and is undergoing surgery.
right now his parents and, like, all parts of the family is coming to the hospital so he just asking for, like, privacy. reporter: it's not the first time something like this has happened. a 14-year-old maimed and
blinded after he says an ecigarette exploded in his hand at the kings plaza shopping center. a kentucky man suffering burns when an ecigarette battery blows up in his pocket. at the wine store, friends banding together to help
gooding even raise money for