Hey Look at Me! I'm Going to Set Myself on Fire...

[Joe Guy]

Internet 'fire challenge' leaves 12-year-old Detroit girl severely burned
Allyson Chiu, The Washington Post Published 6:18 am PDT, Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Sitting around the kitchen table, Brandi Owens waited until her daughter and her two friends finished eating their pancakes before leaving them to take a quick nap. About 10 to 15 minutes after settling into bed with her fiance, Owens heard a loud pop.

"I asked him, I said, 'What was that?' " she told The Washington Post.

Seconds later, Owens's 12-year-old daughter, Timiyah Landers, came tearing down the hallway, engulfed in flames from her knees to her hair.

She "looked like a fireball," Owens said. "She was yelling, 'Help me.' "

Owens's fiance, Marquell Sholar, immediately sprang into action, trying to put out the flames while getting Timiyah into the bathroom and inside the bathtub. As Sholar doused the teen in cold water, Owens grabbed at her daughter's flaming clothes with her bare hands, ripping them off.

"I was reaching through the fire," Owens said, adding that she didn't even realize she had burned her hands. "It was like a reflex. . . . I didn't even feel the fire, I was just saving my daughter."

The couple managed to extinguish the fire, and soon Timiyah was bundled into the car with Owens at the wheel, driving as fast as she could to the nearest hospital.

During the five-minute drive, Owens said she felt as if she was on the brink of going insane. Thoughts raced through her mind: What had the girls been doing? What had happened? Interrupting the questions was a single prayer, "Lord, God, please let my baby be okay."

Friday was supposed to be a relaxing summer afternoon at home, Owens said. Usually, when Timiyah invites friends over, the girls watch videos or spend hours gabbing away.

But now, Timiyah is in intensive care at a children's hospital with nearly half her body covered in severe burns. It was the outcome of attempting a viral Internet dare known as the "fire challenge," which usually involves pouring rubbing alcohol on your body, setting yourself on fire and filming it all. It's just one of numerous social-media-fed stunts - some harmless, some life-threatening - into which young people have been lured over the past few years. Some may remember the "cinnamon challenge," eating a spoonful of ground cinnamon undiluted by water, a reckless exploit that can cause gagging, vomiting, collapsed lungs and hospitalization.

Although Owens said she had never heard of the fire challenge before Friday, videos of teens setting themselves on fire started appearing on social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube about four years ago. Timiyah is also not the first person to be seriously injured doing it.

In July 2014, a 15-year-old from Kentucky sustained second-degree burns after trying the fire challenge. A month later, a 16-year-old in Santa Ana, California, poured nail polish remover on his chest and lit himself on fire. He was hospitalized with second- and third-degree burns.

"Being burned alive was one of the worst things you can imagine," the California teen told KABC-TV at the time. "It's my fault. I can't say nothing else besides it was a dumb idea."

But teenagers weren't the only group getting in on the trend. In August 2014, a North Carolina mother was arrested and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile for allegedly helping her 16-year-old son try the fire challenge. According to police, Janie Lachelle Talley "was present and aware of what her son (was) doing and facilitated the recording," the Charlotte News Observer reported.

Since then, there have been numerous incidents of fire challenges gone awry. Just last month, in a case with striking similarities to Timiyah's, a 12-year-old boy from South Carolina burned more than 40 percent of his body participating in the challenge.

Owens said her daughter is on a ventilator and needs a feeding tube. Timiyah has second- and third-degree burns, and most of her body is covered in heavy white bandages.

As other seventh-graders prepare to go back to school in a few weeks, Owens said her daughter won't be joining them. Doctors told Owens that Timiyah will be hospitalized for at least the next few months and has about four more surgeries left.

Though she hasn't been able to ask Timiyah what happened, Owens said the other girls explained that they were doing the fire challenge. Timiyah had poured rubbing alcohol on her arms, Owens said, and one of the others had lit the fire.

One of them had tried the challenge at her own home and sustained only minor burns, so she introduced it to Timiyah and her other friend that afternoon, Owens said.

"The girl said it seemed like fun," she said, "you just have to be by water when you're doing the fire challenge, so my daughter offered to try it."

While it isn't exactly clear what went wrong, Owens thinks it might have had something to do with the body spray Timiyah was wearing.

"When she put the alcohol on her and the girl lit the fire, it just basically blew up because she already had flammable things on her anyway, perfumes and stuff like that," Owens said, adding that Timiyah's friends are also traumatized from the incident.

"They weren't expecting it to go that way," she said. "It was just a challenge, so it's a lesson learned for all of them."

Beyond people setting themselves on fire, the Internet is the source of a variety of bizarre challenges, many of which leave people wondering one thing: Why?

Why would you want to eat a Tide Pod? Why would you want to rub salt on your arm and then put an ice cube on it? Why would you want to snort a condom into your nose and try to pull it out of your mouth?

Owens said she thinks her daughter was motivated by curiosity.

"When they look on YouTube, they see, 'Oh okay, wow, I want to try that, the outcome with him was okay,' " she said. "Some kids know their right from their wrong, but they can still be curious to try something, to say that they tried it."

Now, as Timiyah begins her lengthy road to recovery, Owens said she hopes YouTube will begin taking down videos related to these dangerous challenges.

"If we weren't home, she'd have died," Owens said. "Those kids wouldn't have known what to do, but to sit there and let her burn. It'd have been pretty much over for her."

local source

[Lord Jim]

I wish somebody could talk Trump into taking this "challenge"....

[Scooter]

He manages to set his own pants on fire several times a day.

I know, I know, that isn't what you meant.,

[Crackpot]

I messed around with lighting rubbing on fire once as a teenager the minor burns I suffered were enough to convince me not to do it again.

[Big RR]

Why would you want to eat a Tide Pod? Why would you want to rub salt on your arm and then put an ice cube on it? Why would you want to snort a condom into your nose and try to pull it out of your mouth?

as stupid as these are, they pale in comparison to lighting yourself on fire. I had very serious burns from a laboratory accident early in my career (and still bear the scars), it's not a pleasant thing.

[Econoline]

Why would you want to eat a Tide Pod? Why would you want to rub salt on your arm and then put an ice cube on it? Why would you want to snort a condom into your nose and try to pull it out of your mouth?

as stupid as these are, they pale in comparison to lighting yourself on fire voting for Trump....it's not a pleasant thing.

FTFY

[Guinevere]

The OP makes me incredibly sad.

Econo, seriously? Wow. I absolutely disagree.

[Big RR]

I have to disagree as well.

[Econoline]

Compared to the amount of harm done to the planet and the sheer number of people affected, a handful of individual tragedies caused by stupid people eating Tide pods and snorting condoms is small potatoes. However, in light of the fact that many Trump voters had, at the time, no idea how bad he would be, I'm amending my previous post:

Why would you want to eat a Tide Pod? Why would you want to rub salt on your arm and then put an ice cube on it? Why would you want to snort a condom into your nose and try to pull it out of your mouth?

as stupid as these are, they pale in comparison to lighting yourself on fire voting for still supporting Trump....it's not a pleasant thing.

FTFY

[dales]

HOLD MY BEER......

[Burning Petard]

While a high school student, I worked part time in a local printing shop (4 Original Heidelburg letter presses, one small rotary flatbed press, four small offset presses.) The presses were cleaned with Benzene. This was back in the mid 1950s. Now it is well known that benzene is a very nasty carcinogen. Back then we knew it was a great solvent that evaporated quickly. Some the pressmen filled their zippo lighters with benzene as lighter fluid. When they pulled the Zippo out of their apron pocket, sliced open and thumbed the wheel, frequently the entire lighter and their hand would be covered with flame that quickly burned off the vapor with a normal flame remaining on the wick.

The vapor burned off fast enough, and the evaporation had a cooling effect on the skin so that no heat was felt, but those guys also had very little hair on that hand or wrist. It did look impressive though. I was not a smoker and also was a gofer that never worked on any of the presses. I did rarely fill a solvent can from the benzene barrel outside in the alley. My non-contact with benzene that was typical of printers back then my explain why I am still around today. I do still have my pica stick.

snailgate

[Gob]

Next up, the; "Watch me jump off this cliff/high building" challenge..

[MajGenl.Meade]

...and mum's favourite, the "would you stick your head in a gas oven?" handicap race.

[Guinevere]

The point, Econoline, is kids letting themselves on fire — not only stupid, but probably extremely disturbed/mentally ill. That’s what I find sad. Your lack of empathy is astonishing.

[Gob]

Why do they have to be; " probably extremely disturbed/mentally ill"? I bet 99.999% of them fall into your first category.

[Jarlaxle]

That!

[Guinevere]

Why do they have to be; " probably extremely disturbed/mentally ill"? I bet 99.999% of them fall into your first category.

Because I’m not a mental health professional, nor do I play one on the internet. Can you definitely say it’s stupidity v mental health issues that make these kids undertake this behavior?

[rubato]

"beans in their noses" has always been one of my favorite stories along with "Big Claus and Little Claus". The scene where Big Claus kills his granny with an axe makes me laugh every time I read it! And who hasn't laughed at "beans in their noses"?

“" ... You killed my grandmother instead of me,” said Little Claus; “so I have sold her for a bushel of money.”

“That is a good price at all events,” said Great Claus. So he went home, took a hatchet, and killed his old grandmother with one blow. Then he placed her on a cart, and drove into the town to the apothecary, and asked him if he would buy a dead body.

“Whose is it, and where did you get it?” asked the apothecary.

“It is my grandmother,” he replied; “I killed her with a blow, that I might get a bushel of money for her.”

“Heaven preserve us!” cried the apothecary, “you are out of your mind. Don’t say such things, or you will lose your head.” And then he talked to him seriously about the wicked deed he had done, and told him that such a wicked man would surely be punished. Great Claus got so frightened that he rushed out of the surgery, jumped into the cart, whipped up his horses, and drove home quickly. The apothecary and all the people thought him mad, and let him drive where he liked.

“You shall pay for this,” said Great Claus, as soon as he got into the highroad, “that you shall, Little Claus.” So as soon as he reached home he took the largest sack he could find and went over to Little Claus. “You have played me another trick,” said he. “First, I killed all my horses, and then my old grandmother, and it is all your fault; but you shall not make a fool of me any more.” So he laid hold of Little Claus round the body, and pushed him into the sack, which he took on his shoulders, saying, “Now I’m going to drown you in the river. "

yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

Because I’m not a mental health professional, nor do I play one on the internet. Can you definitely say it’s stupidity v mental health issues that make these kids undertake this behavior?

No more than you can definitely say it is. However, stupidity is in much greater supply than "mental health" issues, (undefined.)

[Guinevere]

Because I’m not a mental health professional, nor do I play one on the internet. Can you definitely say it’s stupidity v mental health issues that make these kids undertake this behavior?

No more than you can definitely say it is. However, stupidity is in much greater supply than "mental health" issues, (undefined.)

Sure, in the world at large, there is more than enough stupidity to go around. But in the subset of disturbed kids, I think its a closer call. I know normal kids do stupid things, but this strikes me as more than plain stupidity, and I feel sorry for kids that for whatever reason, decide to set themselves on fire. That's my entire point.