A man had first degree burns to his face and singed his eyebrows and hair during a fire in the 2400 block of Military Street in Port Huron on Saturday.

Port Huron Battalion Chief Mark Ford said the homeowner apparently smelled the odorant added to natural gas and went to look for a source.

Ford said the homeowner recently had installed a natural gas water heater.

“He went down there and he used a match, lit, to find the leak,” Ford said.

The gas ignited, Ford said, the burst of flames catching the man’s face and the electrical service breaker box. The box started sizzling, Ford said, so the man cut the power to the house.

He said the homeowner had first degree burns to his face and forearms and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

The fire happened about 11:13 a.m., Ford said, and took almost an hour and a half to extinguish.

“There was damage to the house of moderate to heavy in a small area,” Ford said. “We had to do quite a bit of work to get into the wall. The fire had gotten into the wall.”

He said if people smell natural gas “the best thing to do is call 911, especially if it’s inside a structure.”