A dangerous trend known as the “fire challenge”, which involves people applying flammable liquids to their body and then setting themselves on fire while being filmed, has apparently once again become popular among teenagers in the UK, The Daily Mail reports citing sources among hospital staff.
According to the newspaper, a growing number of “fire challenge” cases have been reported in Wales “after the craze, which began in 2014 picked up again”.
"I can understand there is pressure on young people to gain acceptance or boost their online profiles by doing such risky things as these challenges. But from the patients I see, the results can be very different, with some requiring life support treatment and many left with lifelong scars," a plastic surgeon at Morriston Hospital named Jeremy Yarrow said.
Ana Biney, a staff nurse at Morriston Hospital's Welsh Centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery, also noted that the teens learn about this dangerous trend from social media.
"They copy them from social media and YouTube and call them YouTube Challenges. They film each other doing the challenges and then upload them in the hope they will become social media stars. We have definitely seen an increase in the number of teenagers who have suffered quite serious burns because of this," she said.
Earlier this year, a 12-year old girl from Detroit ended up being hospitalized with burns on 50 percent of her body after attempting a "fire challenge" which she learned about online.
