LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- An 8-year-old boy from Lafayette, Indiana suffered life-threatening injuries after he was burned while trying to start a bonfire with four other children on Sunday evening.
The Lafayette Fire Department responded to a possible structure fire on the 1800 block of N. 15th Street around 10 p.m. Sunday. When rescue crews arrived they found the young boy with burns all over his body. He was taken to a local hospital, and then taken by helicopter to an Indianapolis hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Police say five children between the ages of 8 and 13 were trying to start a bonfire in the yard.
Sgt. Scott Galloway says the children had taken a gas can from a neighbor’s home and were using the gasoline to try to start the fire, “He was dangling a stick and dumped the gas onto the stick and once that hit the stick the fire exploded."
Neighbor Jeremy Bogess said he heard the explosion the moment it happened, “I heard the boom, it was so loud.”
Another neighbor, Tiea Lee, saw the young boy running, “You just see this ball of fire, this little thing running and you just know it’s a kid. And he’s engulfed in flames; it’s like in a movie.”
Police say the young boy ran inside his home where his mother doused him with water and was able to put the fire out. He was sitting on the front porch when rescue crews arrived.
Neighbors were also burned trying to put out the fire. They suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The home was slightly damaged in the fire.
Police say the Department of Child Services has been called in to investigate.
