A former New York City high school student was awarded nearly $60 million by a jury after he was left severely disfigured in a horrific chemistry experiment gone wrong.

Alanzo Yanes, who was 16 at the time of the accident, said he felt like he was “hopelessly burning alive” the moment his entire upper body became engulfed in flames when a fireball erupted in his Beacon High School chemistry class in January 2014.

"I held my breath for as long as I could. But nothing was working. I was hopelessly burning alive, and I couldn't put myself out, and the pain was so unbearable,” Yanes, now 21, told a Manhattan jury.

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The experiment that went awry involved the use of a gallon of methanol, which Yanes and others contended had been handled inapropriately.

The class' teacher, Anna Poole, told jurors during the roughly three week trial that she performed the experiment the same way she had in previous classes -- but an investigation conducted by the Department of Education concluded Poole caused the fire by pouring the methanol directly onto dishes that had already been on fire, the New York Daily News reported.

Testimony from witnesses in the class said the demonstration that resulted in the fireball came as Poole was restarting the experiment for students who got to class late.

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Yanes was awarded $59.17 million, a figure reached in order to compensate him for any pain and suffering that occurred after the accident and any future damages he may experience after sustaining burns to over 31 percent of his body.

Lawyers for the city argued the tragedy was an accident and urged jurors, if they chose to award damages, to make it about $5 million.

In a statement to The Associated Press, the city law office said: "While we respect the jury's verdict, we are exploring our legal options to reduce the award to an amount that is consistent with awards that have been upheld by the courts in similar cases."

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But Yanes’ attorney says that the young man continues to fight “prejudices that come with these disfiguring scars the rest of his life” and that he would reject the award money “in a heartbeat” if it meant he could undo the physical damage he’s undergone.

Yanes was not in court when the verdict was returned -- in part because his presence there had become a spectacle, with pictures being taken of a young man his lawyer said "wants to live a normal life, just like anybody else."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.