Utah boy in hospital after accidentally setting self on fire

CEDAR CITY, Utah — A 12-year-old boy is in the hospital tonight, facing a long and painful recovery after a burn accident outside of Cedar City. The boy accidentally caught himself on fire while standing next to a burn barrel.

“We’re always heartbroken when a child is involved,” said Lieutenant Jeff Humphries, Iron County Sheriff’s Office.

This boy was hurt around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at a home near 5600 North and 4100 West, northwest of Cedar City. According to Humphries, the boy used a squirt bottle filled with gasoline on the fire.

“The child had grabbed that squirt bottle and sprayed it onto the fire when the parent walked away for a period of time, at which point a flash burn came and affected his face, throat, and frontal region with third-degree burns,” Humphries said.

When emergency responders arrived on the scene, they found the child in a second barrel filled with water.

“They found the child in a barrel of water in an attempt to ease the pain of the child, the parents had put him in water,” Humphries said. “At that point, the officers removed him from the water and put him in sheets to help preserve the wounds and keep infection out.”

A permit is required for a burn barrel in Iron County. Humphries said it’s unknown if the family had obtained one. He said the squirt bottle was still on the scene when investigators arrived and was marked as gasoline.

“It’s an accident, it’s an unfortunate accident,” Humphries said. “I want people to take away from this that maybe be more conscious when you have active flame or fire, it only takes a second to turn away from our child for something like that.”