Gas Can Explodes in Texas Injuring Six Children

Kids will be kids as they say, and some like to play with fire. For most, that last part is just a figure of speech but not to six children in McKinney, Texas.

The children were believed to have been left unsupervised playing next to a fire pit with a gas can nearby. One of the children had sprinkled gas on the fire and left the can next to the fire. The fumes from the gas can went ablaze and exploded with the children, ages four to eleven, all standing close by, says USA Today.

Deb Martin, a neighbor, heard the explosion and ran over to the house.

She told the Dallas Morning News:

“It was a whoosh. I don’t know how else to describe it, and the kids were screaming. I thought maybe it was a firecracker, but they kept screaming. Some of the kids were running from the backyard.”

Four children were airlifted to a Dallas hospital with critical burns with a fifth in serious condition and a sixth taken to a McKinney hospital with minor burns, according to ABC News.

Several other children in the backyard were left unhurt, Martin said. She said she and other neighbors called 911 and removed the injured children’s still-burning clothes.

McKinney Fire Department spokeswoman Stacie Durham said a child who is believed not to have been injured ran into the home and told the adults about the explosion and that the other children were on fire.

Hopefully none of the children suffer worse than that, but, if lack of supervision is proven to be the ultimate cause, there should be some criminal charges to come.