CORNELIA — Police say an idea from an online video apparently resulted in burns to a Cornelia child late Sunday night.
Habersham County Emergency Services, Cornelia Police Department and Cornelia Fire Department were dispatched to a Berry Street home at 11:30 p.m. Sunday, June 10.
Maj. Jonathan Roberts, assistant chief of Cornelia Police Department, told AccessWDUN what happened next.
“When the officers got there, they initially felt through their investigation that the young man may have participated in what is going around called the ‘Alcohol Challenge’, where they douse themselves in the shower with alcohol, light themselves on fire, then try to put the fire out,” Roberts said.
But officers learned that apparently was not the case, according to information the child’s mother gave police Monday.
“Speaking with her, she made us aware that there’s another challenge or participation activity that kids are being motivated to try, and that’s dousing paper or material of some sort in rubbing alcohol and lighting it on fire, then flailing it around in an attempt to put the fire out. Then the piece of paper shows no marks of burning. She says speaking to her son that this is actually what occurred. While he was trying to put the fire out, apparently the flames got too close to the alcohol bottle, and that’s how the alcohol and burns got on him, melting the bathroom shower curtain, as well as causing damage to other areas of the bathroom.”
That experiment also is a common magic trick, though it is not known if the 11-year-old victim was an aspiring magician.
Roberts urges parents to communicate with their children regularly about the potential dangers of online experiments and challenges.
“We encourage parents to be vigilant on what their kids are watching and the people they’re talking to on social media,” Roberts said. “YouTube is really a huge outlet for kids in this generation. If you have an Amazon account, you can order the materials and watch YouTube and do brain surgery — or they think they can.”
What appears to be safe to young people when viewed online in fact can result in serious injuries if all conditions are not optimal.
“They see people in controlled environments that may or may not be ‘professionals’ do these things, and they take it upon themselves to try to do things that look easy,” Roberts said. “As a result, we have a young man down in the hospital with burns all over his body.”
Roberts said awareness and communication can help parents keep their children safe.
“We just ask that parents continue to be vigilant, monitoring their children’s Internet activities, and just having conversations with them,” Roberts told AccessWDUN. “There have been some really rude and inappropriate comments made on social media regarding this incident. Where some people think something like this is common sense, it really comes down to communicating with their children.”
Following Sunday night’s incident, the unnamed child was taken by ambulance under Habersham County Emergency Services care to Cornelia Elementary School, where he then was flown by an AirLife Georgia medical helicopter to the burn unit at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta for care.
“We have spoken with the mother earlier today to check on the young man’s status,” Roberts said Monday afternoon. “Thankfully, we are able to report that he is expected to make a full recovery.”
