Virginia Pastor Dies from Severe Burns following Firepit Explosion

“We are so happy that he is no longer in pain and his body is healed, but we are so heartbroken,” Corey’s daughter, Jenna Guercia, wrote. “There will never be enough words to tell of the impact he had on my life and the lives of so many.”

“We see every message and feel your love. Thank you all for covering us in prayer through this time. Only Lord knows what is next, but by His grace we will keep going.”

Corey previously served as the youth pastor at Calvary Road Baptist Church in Alexandria, before he became a senior pastor at a different church. Per Church Leaders, the late pastor and his wife planned to move about 200 miles away to Glasgow, Virginia, to be closer to Guercia.

At the time of the incident, neighbors heard an explosion coming from Corey’s home.

“You see him add an accelerant, which happened to be a gas can. Then you hear this big explosion, and the gas can was too close to the fire, and it exploded in his hands,” one neighbor, who recorded the incident in real time, noted.

“Unfortunately, the gas can, it sprayed all over him. And you then see him drop down to the ground, and the fire just followed him, and he was on fire.”

Corey’s wife immediately attended to her husband by attempting to put out the fire with a rug.

“The last thing that you hear on my Ring camera is, ‘I’m alive, I’m alive,'” the neighbor said.

In a post after the incident, Guercia shared that her father was initially going to undergo surgery to treat his burns followed by being in and out of sedation. Despite being responsive to both his wife and daughter, Corey’s condition worsened over the next several days.

He was subsequently placed on dialysis and antibiotics in fighting off kidney and lung failure. Several days later, however, Corey passed away at the age of 57.

A Meal Train was launched to support the family, raising at $11,743 of its $20,000 goal as of Wednesday. The online fundraiser also announced that Corey’s funeral will take place at Calvary Road Baptist Church Friday (Feb. 16).

Image credit: © Getty Images/Carolina Jaramillo

Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for Christian Headlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.