NJ officials warn of disturbing trend on social media of teens setting themselves on fire

[davidn3600]

(NBC) -- Officials with the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety have issued a statewide emergency bulletin about a dangerous "fire challenge" being completed by teens.

They are dousing their bare skin in flammable liquids, like alcohol, and lighting it on fire.

The teens are recording the acts and posting the videos on websites like YouTube and Facebook. But the stunt has already resulted in serious injuries across the nation.

In Arkansas, a 14-year-old girl suffered second degree burns to 27 percent of her body after pouring nail polish remover on her skin and igniting it.

"I saw a lot of people do it and I never saw anyone die from it," the girl, Monica Hamilton, told the NBC affiliate in Little Rock, Ark. as she discussed her motivation.

A mother in Charlotte, North Carolina was arrested after allegedly helping her 16-year-old son undertake the dangerous act.

http://www.myarklamiss.com/story/d/story/teen-fire-challenges-spark-emergency-warning-from/93953/wmoO5Q4K2UySDdfQ1Ww7FA

[Throd]

1. Charles Darwin, please report to the burn ward.

[pipoman]

2. A friend did this with lighter fluid when we were 12 +/-

He didn't get burned, but his dad kicked his ass...in a concerned father kind of way....

[840high]

3. How stupid can one be.

[Skittles]

4. I KNOW I was never that stupid as a teenager

seriously

[Javaman]

5. this is nothing new...

as long as there has been fire and especially lighters, kids have been doing this stupidity for years.

back in the early 80's when I was in high school, I can't tell you the amount of times I saw kids do "tricks" with bic lighters.

Later on, I worked a catering hall and the waiters, mostly guys in their late teens and early twenties, would do tricks with the sterno cans.

it goes on and on and even back then there were stories of kids burning themselves with these "tricks".

only difference now is, they have a showcase for their stupidity.

but since there was never a study determining exactly how many kids had burned themselves with bic lighters or sterno cans, no one knows how many actually burned themselves.

so now we have a slew of videos of kids lighting themselves up. and NOW it's a concern.

youtube has become the latest parenting tool.

rather than talk to their kids, parents find out after the fact they have spawned a moron who lights themselves up when they see their kids on youtube.

[FSogol]

6. Cue my Mom's voice: "If your friends jumped off the roof, would you jump off too?"

[Glassunion]

7. The stupid... It does indeed burn