Hot Wheels: Arizona Man Designs Flame-Throwing Wheelchair

A fire-spitting device has turned an ordinary motorized wheelchair into a set of hot wheels.

The flame-throwing wheelchair is the brainchild of Lance Greathouse, a Glendale, Ariz., dental equipment repairman.

"It started out as a rescue helicopter seat. I had an electric golf cart and an old lawn mower and put the parts together and it was born," Greathouse told ABCNews.com.

His other creations in development include a six-wheel-drive chair, an ejection seat wheelchair and a "Dr. Evil chair," named after the Austin Powers character, complete with a barbecue.

"They show the person's personality - what they're like, what they're about," Greathouse said.

In between creating tricked-out wheelchairs, Greathouse said he also restores a few each month at his own expense and donates them to an Arizona charity.

"There are so many wheelchairs laying around not doing any good. I'm constantly getting requests for chairs," he said.

His passion for restoring wheelchairs and dreaming up custom creations came, he said, when he watched his brother's five-year battle with a rare form of Parkinson's.

"I saw people treat him really differently in his wheelchair," Greathouse said. "It was, 'What's happened to you?' They felt sorry for him"

After he created a souped-up wheelchair for his brother, Brent, Greathouse said it "changed the way people looked at him."

He said he hopes his custom creations do the same thing for other people who use them.

"They want to live and have fun just like everybody else, [but] there aren't any choices out there," he said. "A lot of people think I am crazy, but every disabled person who sits in my chair says, 'We love it!'"

(Image Credit: KNXV)