A mum has issued a warning about the dangers of youngsters copying videos on YouTube after her 10-year-old son suffered severed burns taking part in a prank.
Dale Robinson decided to copy a stunt he had watched online using a lighter, deodorant and a petrol jar while playing with friends in park near his home in Belfast.
The schoolboy sustained his injuries after he flicked the switch on the lighter and flames engulfed his face and jacket in a "tornado like" explosion.
Dale screamed and ran around the playground begging someone to help him as his black puffa coat melted onto his face and head, Belfast Live reports.
His younger brother Jude, seven, raised the alarm, resulting in mum Deborah Moore racing to the scene where she found her son screaming “I’m going to die, someone help me.”
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Luckily Dale didn’t require surgery but he has been left with burns on his face, head and neck.
Deborah recalled how the nightmare unfolded just three days before Christmas, on December 22.
She said: “They’re always watching these YouTube videos showing different stunts and him and his mates were down in the Hammer Park that Sunday and they found a petrol can in the bush and there was a lighter inside it and then they found a deodorant tin.
"So they decided then to get the petrol can, spray the deodorant inside it and then he leaned over with the lighter and lit it.
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“As he did that the flame came up and burnt his whole face, his coat was melted onto him it had to be cut off and so did his t-shirt. It was a puffy coat so all the fibre inside was hanging out and the coating was stuck onto the side of his head, his eyebrows, his eyelashes."
She said she was shocked with what she saw when she rushed to the scene.
“I didn’t realise how bad it was when Jude came to tell me but I knew when I heard he had a lighter I had to get down there straight away," she said.
“I got there and there he was running round the park screaming, ‘please help me’, he was frantic, he was in hysterics screaming ‘I’m going to die, somebody help me’.
"I felt sick, his face was all black because the coat all melted onto him, I got him into the car as quick as I could to the Mater hospital, it felt like it took a year until we got him there.
“One of the other wee boys told me after that the flame was like a tornado going round in a big circle first before exploding up in his face.”
Dale spent 24 hours in hospital before he was discharged in time for Christmas but Deborah said he now hides in his bedroom.
She said: “Thankfully he didn’t need plastic surgery as it was what they called a flash flame that hit him. He is healing well but you can still see the scarring on his face and he’s still off school.
"He went in one day last week and kept his hood up because he was so self conscious but he only lasted 45 minutes, he just wasn’t ready.
“They kept him in overnight as they were worried about the burning up inside his nose and that’s his airway and his ear so they were afraid of that swelling and affecting his throat and then struggling to breathe.
“It was the worst Christmas ever, he got up on Christmas morning and he wasn’t even bothered he went back to bed, he’s just been lying in his bed, he hasn’t been sleeping well either since it happened. It’s awful.”
The 41-year-old hopes by sharing the story and shocking images of Dale’s injuries it will serve as a warning to other children not to copy videos they see online.
She said: “If that had of been an ongoing flame he would have burnt to death, he would have been on fire, it doesn’t even bear thinking about.
"Other kids need to know that they can’t mess around with lighters and stuff like this, just don’t touch it. I try and tell them this all the time but wee boys, they’re always up to stuff and always watching these videos, and that’s what they done down in the park because of the things they’ve been watching on the YouTube.
"They need to just stay away from all of those things because these are the dangers, this is what can happen or worse when you mess around with lighters and petrol. They don’t realise how things can easily go wrong.”
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