The distraught wife of a furniture stripper who fell into a vat of caustic soda was today keeping vigil at his bedside.

Frank Bland was in a critical condition on a life support machine suffering from horrendous burns and damage to his eyes after he was drenched from head to toe in the substance which was being heated in an 8ft by 3ft tank.

The 55-year-old was working alone at his Jiffy Strip workshop in a cluster of industrial units in Railway Road, Idle, Bradford, when the accident happened on Friday evening.

Writhing in agony he managed to stagger out of the tank and his screams for help alerted a friend, Peter Armstrong, who lives nearby and rushed to help.

Mr Armstrong hosed him down while he waited for emergency crews to arrive. Firefighters and paramedics treated his burns at the scene before he was taken to hospital.

Mr Bland's wife Carol, 45, was today by his side at the specialist burns unit at Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield.

She said she had been due to collect her husband from his work at 9.45pm but was contacted by police at Ridgeside hostel, Cookridge, Leeds, where she works as a care assistant for people with learning difficulties.

"Frank has a lot of machinery at his work and I thought maybe he had cut his finger off but I wasn't expecting this," she said.

"I just want him to come back in one piece. He has 80 per cent burns. There is not much of him that is not bandaged. It took hospital staff eight hours to bandage him up. They are not sure whether he will pull through or not yet and they are not sure about his sight because he is not conscious.

"He is a shy person and he jokes about to hide the shyness. His hobby is his work. He likes doing woodwork. He has been doing his job for almost 20 years."

The couple, of Rycroft Avenue, Cottingley, have been married for 27 years.

"I am very shy and when we first met he was one of those people I could talk to," said Mrs Bland. "He enjoys cooking and makes food for the other people in the yard and customers. The other day he made fish and chips for somebody who came to have a job done from Bridlington."

Mr Bland's next-door neighbour Angela Thompson, said she has known him for 15 years.

She said: "Frank is a nice guy and a hard worker. I was very shocked when his wife told me what had happened. He is very careful at work so to hear that was very surprising."

The 38-year-old childminder added: "It is a tragic thing to happen to anybody. He has been doing his job for more than 20 years. His wife Carol will be beside herself."

Mark Holmes, licensee of the Throstle's Nest in Cottingley, where Mr Bland is a regular, said everyone there was thinking about him.

"He is a nice bloke," said Mr Holmes. "He is a quiet bloke. He is friendly and will talk to anybody. We just hope he gets well soon. His family must be going through hell."

The Health and Safety Executive has started an investigation into the accident.