WBRZ - Baton Rouge

HAVELOCK, N.C. - A North Carolina man is dead after he accidentally drank a jar of gasoline and then smoked a cigarette.

Havelock police said 43-year-old Gary Allen Banning died this morning after he accidentally set himself on fire Monday.

He was at a friend's apartment where he mistakenly took a gulp of gasoline from a jar by the kitchen sink.

Banning apparently wasn't aware gasoline was in the jar which he thought was a beverage.

After he took a gulp, he spit the gasoline out of his mouth which landed on his clothes.

Sometime later, investigators said Banning went outside to smoke a cigarette and that's when his clothes burst into flames.

Police and fire officials are continuing their investigation into Banning's death.