Mineral spirits works fine, although some prepackaged stuff may have some water in the container.
Doing some websearches see that the red dye kerosene works fine, but may need to service/replace the wick more often on my Kero-sun heater. Sounds like they will also run on diesel (but may need more attention to the wick). But good to know in a pinch you can use diesel. With a CO alarm and a window cracked a bit!
I wonder too if he got the fuel wrong (put gas in instead of kerosene)?