A 23-year-old man succumbed to his injuries at the San Fernando General Hospital two days after he was burnt when a bamboo-bursting exercise went wrong.

Gary Gueverro, a safety officer from Papourie Road, Diamond Village, died at hospital on Friday night from first-degree burns.

His friend, Anup Ramnanan, who was with Gueverro at the time, said it was the first time he has ever seen anything like what happened to Gueverro. "We were bursting bamboo around 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday and everybody was taking turns, when he told one of the younger guys, 'Let me teach you how to burst bamboo old-school.'"

Ramnanan said this was when the bamboo split and set the front of Gueverro's T-shirt alight. "He started running and we couldn't hold him. He ran into a neighbour's bathroom and when he turned on the shower there was no water, so he ran to another overhead tap and this is how he out the fire."

Ramnanan said they called EHS but the services were slow to respond and when they did arrive, Gueverro was taken to the San Fernando General Hospital, where he died on Friday night.

Gueverro's adopted mother, Agnes Dickson, with whom he had lived since the age of eight, described him as a loving and respectful young man who always knew how to make people laugh.