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The victim, Hana Engel, has come forward this week to share her incredible story and put to rest the Pinocchio tales that she has no nose.

In fact, while she continues to recover, Engel, 24, has scars and damage both physical and emotional that she will bear always, because of a few crazy seconds gone wrong at a backyard gathering. Her family and the love of her life, Jake Cardwell, are emotionally scarred from the incident, struggling to cope.

Nearly two full months after the fire that engulfed her body in flames, Engel still has mornings when she can barely move.

Her alarm is the physical pain that kicks in as early as 5 a.m., her neck stiff, and a feeling of “X-Acto knives running through my chest.”

Her boyfriend, former Ottawa 67’s defenceman Cardwell, 26, whose quick actions saved her life that night, continues to provide constant daily care, including hours of massage for her scars and tight skin, driving her to physiotherapy and occupational therapy sessions. All while struggling to suppress the anger and frustration of this ongoing nightmare.

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That evening of May 9 was fairly typical for three hockey players and their female partners, just after the ice chips had settled on their season. Cardwell and Engel, along with Ryan Van Stralen and his girlfriend, Emily, were dinner guests of Ottawa Senators defenceman Cody Ceci and his partner, Jamie Thompson.

In their teens, Ceci, Cardwell and Van Stralen were teammates on the 67’s. Now, Cardwell plays in the Czech Republic for HC Dynamo Pardubic while Van Stralen has a contract with the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL. Ceci, of course, an Orléans native, has been a member of the Ottawa Senators since 2012, when he was drafted in the first round, 15th overall.