Wil Kornegay never jumped rope when he had legs, but he does now.

A psychiatric nurse at The William W. Backus Hospital, Kornegay, 40, has been pushing himself and inspiring others at New London CrossFit since he started there 18 months ago.

Burned over 90 percent of his body as a teenager in a North Carolina garage fire fueled by spilled gasoline and a wood stove, Kornegay lost both legs just below the knees and was left with rigid scar tissue that gnarls his fingers and hands.

Today, he can deadlift 235 pounds by gripping the bar with two fingers on his left hand and three fingers on the right. He uses that technique when he does a pull-up, too.

"I just grab on and pull," said Kornegay, explaining he's still not satisfied with his pull-up, since he uses a band for assistance .

"I don't try to use (my fingers) as an excuse," he said. "But also, I try not to beat myself up. When I'm like, 'Well, I can't do a pull-up yet,'" I think, 'Well, how many people (at CrossFit) can do a two-finger pull-up?' "

His size, he said, is the biggest obstacle to his success, but he's already down to about 255 pounds from his starting weight of almost 290 in the fall of 2013, when he first walked into New London CrossFit.

"I was just a blob of misery, and a friend said, 'Come check out CrossFit,'" Kornegay said.

He did, and recalls his immediate thought was, "This is insane. These people are out of their minds. I cannot do any of this stuff."

But something inside - what Kornegay describes as an obstinate streak that he's always had and said he learned to channel in a positive direction after the fire - made him rethink his initial reaction and decide to start CrossFit.

"I was intrigued. I had read things online and I knew it could be scaled for anybody," he said. "And, I heard these (coaches) say they wanted me to come and that they would work with me."

Kornegay never looked back. He and his wife, the former Jackie Lorinsky of Stonington, started at the gym together and continue to work out regularly.

At a recent WOD (workout of the day), Kornegay struggled to jump rope until coach and gym owner Mike Penta got in his face and shouted pointers and encouragement.

Soon, Kornegay was swinging the rope over his head and lifting his prostheses to clear it each time it came around. After five or six times, the rope tangled in his artificial leg and he'd start over again.

"You just tell him to do something, and he will do it," said Penta.

Like running.

When Kornegay started at CrossFit, he'd muscle along in his wheelchair for the 400-meter warm-up runs, but not anymore. Now he runs the distance like everyone else.

"If you want to talk about impressive, that's impressive," Penta said. "Because he's never gonna beat anybody in a run. And to always be last, or to finish just about last in everything, you gotta talk about how strong he is mentally. And he is strong mentally.

"And there is nothing more powerful than someone who is mentally strong," Penta said. "You know you can be physically strong, but when you're mentally strong, it's a whole other level. If you have that, it doesn't matter who you are, you will be successful."

Life-changing event

Wil Kornegay rarely talks about the fire that badly burned him, but when he does, he always makes sure to mention one thing.

"Honestly, it was horrible, but it changed the arc of my life, and significantly for the better," he explained.

Sixteen at the time of the January 1991 fire, Kornegay was destined to become a mechanic or truck driver, like his father, uncles and friends in Albertson, N.C., he said.

But the severe injuries he suffered, and the years of hospitalization and physical and occupational therapy he endured, introduced him to new and different possibilities.

"I was just pulled out of that world that I was in, and for three, four years I was surrounded by educated professionals - doctors, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists," he said. "People who had educations, 401(k)s, nice homes, and who went on vacations. People who treated each other with respect.

"And that changed who I would become," he said.

The fire killed a 34-year-old family friend and seriously injured four - Kornegay the most severely.

Four men and two teenagers were draining gasoline from the tank of a car in Kornegay's father's garage when the catch-basin overflowed and the vapors from the trailing gasoline sparked an explosion as they neared a wood-burning stove.

"I was throwing down (absorbent material) to soak up the gas and I remember looking over at the stove and thinking, 'Oh, we should close the draft on the stove before it sucks the fumes in, and literally before that thought even finished, it ignited and I watched it come across the floor and it engulfed me," said Kornegay.

He can still hear the sound - "a screeching, almost a roar, but more of a screech as it ignites, and it essentially just sucks the air out of the room and explodes" - and remembers how the flames enveloped him.

"I had third-degree flash burns, so it went from zero degrees to, the doctor told me, about 1,200 degrees in a second," said Kornegay. "You go from no fire to literally being in the midst of an explosion. So literally, I felt warm and then I felt nothing. So you almost burn through all the nerve tissue before the brain gets the signal that we're on fire."

Engulfed in flames, Kornegay said he knew he had to get out of the garage and the only way to do it was to go through the fire. He started, slipped on the gas, fell to his knees, then pushed himself up and moved towards the door.

Outside, he dropped and found some cool, wet grass to roll around in. Another victim was being doused with a garden hose, so Kornegay, who said he was trained in school about what to do if ever in a fire, went indoors, called for his stepmother to call 911, and headed for the shower to cool the burns that were still cooking his body.

His hands were too burned to turn the faucet, but his father, who was burned over 30 percent of his body, started the water and left him until the volunteer rescue squad arrived and took him to a hospital.

Kornegay was at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, hospital for five months before being transferred to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, hospital, where he was treated for another three months before being discharged for several years of intensive out-patient therapies.

Kornegay would suffer depression and lose his way, but eventually, he said, he learned to channel his obstinate streak.

"I think I came to realize that there is a certain amount of effort that you have to put into life to have life work out well," he said. "Too often that obstinate streak has sown destruction in my family - it has cost them jobs, or lost relationships, or it has got them criminal charges - and I just decided I was going to use it to better myself - to use that part of me that is stubborn, aggressive and pushy and do more positive with it."

Kornegay earned a bachelor of science degree in therapeutic recreation from Springfield College, a master of science in education program administration from Southern Illinois University, and a nursing degree from Three Rivers Community College in Norwich.

He started last June as a psychiatric nurse at Backus, and prior to that, worked as a recreation therapist at Natchaug Hospital in Mansfield Center, as well as other places.

He met his wife, a physical therapist, while they were both undergraduates in Springfield. Today, the Kornegays live in Groton with their 5-year-old daughter, Robin.

'I will jump rope'

Two garages, about 675 miles apart, have helped to reshape Wil Kornegay: the one where he was terribly burned, and now the old service department of a closed car dealership where New London CrossFit is located.

"I was raised in garages and repair shops, and I felt comfortable the moment I walked in" to CrossFit for the first time, said Kornegay, who recalls he was wearing khaki shorts with his two prostheses fully exposed.

But this time, rather than tinkering with cars and tools, Kornegay came to the old garage to fix himself.

"I just turned 40 in June and that was part of my push for CrossFit," he said. "I didn't want to be almost 300 pounds and 40 years old with a 4-year-old daughter. I know what (excess weight) begets and it's a heart attack and a stroke and death at 60, and I didn't want my kid barely out of high school and her dad dying. That just wasn't an option for me."

Successful CrossFit, Kornegay said he read, was a series of accomplishments, and that intrigued him.

"I was just ready for that next accomplishment," he explained.

Today, he's mastering the moves one at a time. He's got substantial upper body strength and is able to do things like kettlebells with ease. But jumping rope and box jumps are taking more time.

"I was one of the few kids in gym class in junior high and high school who just didn't jump rope because I never knew how," said Kornegay. "It's just one of those things that as a kid that you either learned how to or you didn't, and I never learned. I never had the coordination, and no one ever took the time to show me the technique."

But he's learning now.

"Eventually, I will jump rope, and as I shed more weight, it will be easier," he said.

And it's the same with a box jump.

"It was one thing that bothered me that I couldn't do," he said.

So he started by stepping up and down on a 35-pound weight plate, and when he was comfortable doing that, started to jump on and off the plate, rather than just step on and off of it.

Then he stacked two plates, and conquered that.

At home, Kornegay built his own 7½-inch box and practiced jumping on it. And then he brought his homemade box to CrossFit, and wedged a 35-pound weight plate underneath it.

Jumping on the box rather than the plate is more difficult for Kornegay, because of the shape of the landing pad, a square, that requires him to get his prostheses higher and wider in order to clear it.

But he keeps trying, and knows one day he will master the 12-inch box jump.

He can do a handstand, too, although he's not happy that he has to walk his prostheses up the wall, and that he can't do a handstand pushup instead.

"I'll never be satisfied, and that is a good and bad thing," said Kornegay. "I'd like to get to a point where I am just content and happy with everything the way it is, but I don't know if I can. I don't know if I have it in me to ever get there. It's just a drive I have, something I can't put a finger on, and it's not just CrossFit."

"He came in the door willing to work," said Penta. "And what impresses me about him is that I can't get people who don't have disabilities to work as hard as he does. It's how much effort that he puts in trying to get better at this that wows me."

"He's amazing," said fellow CrossFitter Erin Blette. "He's just a real go-getter and he stops at nothing."

"He has a good spirit and he's always cheering everyone on," said Linda Kent, who started CrossFit about the same time the Kornegays did.

Kent said when Wil Kornegay gave up his wheelchair to run, it encouraged her.

"I hate running, and when I see Wil outpacing me, I figure if he can do it, I can get my butt moving, too."

Kornegay said occasionally he will give able-bodied CrossFitters a verbal jab.

"I never want anyone at CrosssFit to be discouraged because they can't do what the crippled guy can do," he said. "But I do give some of the guys who I think can take it a little bit of a hard time."

It makes Kornegay uncomfortable when people tell him he's an inspiration.

"I don't want to be an inspiration just for showing up," he said. "If you want to find inspiration in my story, find it in the fact that I don't give up and I don't make excuses and I don't quit. I'm OK with people being inspired by that."

a.baldelli@theday.com

Twitter: @annbaldelli