SAN ANTONIO -- As a Marine, Jeremy Ehart was the picture of strength. Now people look away. His face is twisted and scarred. His body is ruined after a fiery accident five years ago.

"Every morning when I look in the mirror I'm still shocked," said Ehart of his burn-damaged face and body.

Ehart was at Fort Hunter Liggett firing blanks from an M-60 machine gun when his ghillie suit, a camouflage outfit made with burlap-type flaps, caught fire. Within seconds, Ehart was engulfed in flames.

"First thing I noticed was this arm was just on fire," said Ehart. "I just remember saying, 'Help me, help me, help me!'"

Ehart suffered third- and fourth-degree burns to over 60 percent of his body. He was treated in the intensive care unit and a burn unit.

His injuries changed his life.

"This shouldn't have happened. It could have been prevented," Ehart said.

Ehart and his lawyer, Dan Sciano, have filed a lawsuit against the maker of the ghillie suit and others, saying it was not properly flame retardant.

"I don't think there's any question that the manufacturer of this product sold a product that is unreasonably dangerous," Sciano said. "You can't treat these products by using an eight ounce spray bottle."

Sciano is warning parents that some ghillie suits and lit pumpkins do not mix during Halloween.

"This is an invitation for disaster," Sciano said.

Ehart does not want anyone else to be burned like he was.

He said he is still coping with his appearance.

"I used to be angry," said Ehart. "It's tough sometimes, but I'm alive."

There are some ghillie suits that have some synthetic material and do not burn easily.

"They have a coating on them so that way it helps to be flame retardant," said Jared Diamond, an employee of National Outdoors.