We've all gone through a childhood pyro phase—kicking around flaming tennis balls, lighting farts, hot footing—and most of us managed to miraculously walk away unscathed. But occasionally you hear about an incident that makes you feel lucky you didn't win that Juvie Darwin Award you so richly deserved. Yesterday afternoon a water balloon, a puddle of gasoline and a lit match almost burned a 10-year-old boy to death in the Rockaways.
Gavin Rogers and a couple buddies say they were just chilling in the back yard while Gavin's parents were at work. (They'd been left under the care of Gavin's 13-year-old brother, who was inside the house at the time.) They filled up a dirt bike with gas, and some of the gas ended up spilling onto the patio where they were fooling around with water balloons. And at some point Gavin took a flame to one of the water balloons as he stood in a puddle of gasoline.
When the balloon burst, a still-burning piece of rubber ignited the gasoline on the patio, sending flames shooting up Gavin's body that were so intense they melted the rubber on the soles of his sneakers. "He just started screaming, 'Help me! Help me! It burns! It burns!'" his friend Chris DeMarco tells the Daily News. "I just tried to save him. I tried to put out the flames. It was bad. It was scary." An ambulance rushed the boy the hospital, where he was treated for second- and third-degree burns over half his body, including to his legs and face. His father tells the News, "I believe he's going to be okay. They initially thought it was really bad, but now they think... it's not life-threatening at all."
