Story highlights A Kentucky man says he suffered severe burns when an e-cigarette battery caught fire in his pocket

Gas station surveillance video captured the incident

There have been 22 e-cigarette fires since the devices hit the market in 2008

(CNN) Josh Hamilton is recovering from severe burns on his right thigh after an electronic cigarette battery apparently exploded in his pocket over the weekend. The Owensboro, Kentucky, resident was paying for snacks at his local Shell gas station when flames shot out from his leg through his clothes.

"He was giving me money, he put his hand in his pocket, so suddenly there was fire. Big fire, and he was burning," Jassie Singh, who was working the register at the time, told CNN affiliate WFIE . Surveillance cameras inside the gas station captured it on video. Hamilton steps back from the counter, shaking his leg, and then runs outside.

Manoj Kumar, another gas station employee who was working Saturday, told CNN that Hamilton then took off his pants to try to get rid of the flames. He said that Singh then "came out of the store, grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed it on the guy's leg." Then another customer took him to a hospital, he said.

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"Third degree burns all up and down my leg. Just had an Ecig battery blow up and catch fire inside my pocket! Ouch ow ow ow," Hamilton posted on Facebook on Saturday afternoon. After he went to the hospital, he posted a graphic picture of his wound and clarified his injuries with the comment, "These are actually all 2nd degree burns so hopefully won't have to have surgery or skin graphs. But it's too soon to tell I think."

E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that release liquid, usually with nicotine, in the form of vapor to users who inhale it. Neither the devices nor the liquids they deliver are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration or any other group in the same way other tobacco products are. The FDA has been considering doing so.

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