A woman named Vivienne Barcena claims she was scarred by burns caused by the bonfire accident last December that found As I Lay Dying vocalist Tim Lambesis in the hospital. She is now suing Lambesis and his parents for negligence because of the accident.

Lambesis had previously stated that the burns occurred because “The entire gas cap fell off when trying to use a little from the trickle tip to get a bonfire started. Gas got all over my clothes and I ended up burning 25% of my body.”

He added, “I’ve been in the hospital since Saturday night, and I will be here for a couple more weeks most likely. Today’s surgery is to remove the remaining dead skin that we were unable to scrub off during dressing changes this week. It will be for the best so that we won’t have to scrub so hard during dressing changes, and that is a big relief for me. I am extremely thankful for the Burns center workers who are taking care of me.”

About a week later, he made another comment saying that although he would make a full recovery, the experience had been extremely painful and felt fortunate compared to the others in the burn center, “The recovery from these burns has been the most painful experience of my life, but I’m told I will eventually have a full recovery. I have to remember that on the tough days and be grateful I have the chance to be back to doing what I love again soon, because that is not the case for everyone in the burn center…”

Now, Barcena claims that she was scarred by the mishap because she had been standing near the fire pit when Lambesis allegedly squirted fire accelerant into it and that had caused the flames to “explode out” onto her arm, back and midsection. She says she “lived with intense pain” that she alleges lasted through mid-February, and also explains that she had been invited to the bonfire by one of her friends.

Lambesis just revealed a few days ago that he had contracted COVID-19 while complaining about the muscle he had lost from getting the virus. He stated, “I had just gained back the 20 pounds of muscle I lost from being in the ICU and now I’ve lost another 5 from Covid 🤮.”

This isn’t Lambesis’ first encounter with the law. He was arrested in 2013 for attempting to hire a hitman to kill his ex-wife, having agreed to pay an undercover cop’s $20,000 price to do the job. He was subsequently sentenced to 6 years in prison after pleading guilty to solicitation of murder. However, he was paroled in 2016. Following his release, As I Lay Dying reunited in 2018 and came back with a critically-successful new album in 2019 called Shaped by Fire.

They had been around since 2000 and have now released eight studio albums in total, including Frail Words Collapse (2003), Shadows Are Security (2005) and An Ocean Between Us (2007). For most of their career, they’ve kept consistently to the melodic metalcore subgenre.

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat