‘Fire Challenge’ Goes Wrong, Detroit Girl Burns 50 Percent Of Her Body
The so-called “Fire Challenge,” a viral trend among teenagers and children, has left a 12-year-old Detroit girl with severe burns over 50 percent of her body, Time is reporting.
In the “Fire Challenge,” participants put a “small amount” of rubbing alcohol somewhere on their body and then light it, letting it burn briefly before putting it out with water. Participants film the whole event, then share it on social media.
That’s how it’s supposed to work, anyway. For 12-year-old Timiyah Landers, however, it went horribly wrong.
Timiyah’s mother, Brandi Owens, said that she heard a commotion coming from outside her bedroom on Friday, according to WKRG-TV (Mobile).
“Next thing I know [Timiyah] come running through the hallway past my bedroom, going into the bathroom on fire.”
Brandi and her boyfriend put out the flames, and then rushed the young girl to the hospital. She was diagnosed with 2nd- and 3rd-degree burns over 50 percent of her body.
“Just laying there in pain, the tears in her eyes, it kills me – watching her suffer, due to what her and her friends done.”
Brandi thinks that Timiyah may have been wearing perfume, which accelerated the burning process.
Meanwhile, Timiyah remains in the hospital. She has a long and painful road to recovery ahead of her — a recovery which will include several more surgeries.
Niña de 12 años arde en llamas intentado hacer un reto viral: Con apenas 12 años, la pequeña Timiyah Landers, residente de #Detroit, #Estados_Unidos, se encuentra recluida en un hospital tras sufrir quemaduras desde la cabeza hasta los pies, en un… https://t.co/OHfEYSs9aT
— Cubanos por el Mundo (@Cubanoselmundo) August 22, 2018
Brandi has a message to the video sites that host these “Fire Challenge” videos, reported WXYZ-TV (Detroit).
“They need to delete this mess. It should be censored. That’s nothing that a kid should come across. I could have lost my baby, by the grace of God she’s alive. If I wasn’t home, I would have walked in to my baby dead.”
The “Fire Challenge,” which dates back to at least 2014, is making the rounds again on social media. It’s just the latest in a series of viral “challenges” in which children, teenagers, and sometimes adults, film each other doing ridiculous things.
Some of those are silly and actually do some good – such as the “Ice Bucket Challenge” from a few years ago, which actually ended up raising money for medical research.
Others, such as the “Cinnamon Challenge,” in which participants eat a spoonful of raw cinnamon, aren’t exactly dangerous, but can certainly cause discomfort (cinnamon dries out the mucus membranes in the mouth, making swallowing it next to impossible).
And some, such as the “Fire Challenge” and the “Tide Pod Challenge,” during which participants eat laundry detergent pods, are downright dangerous.
