Young kids hurt whilst starting a fire in Edlington

[NoddyHolder]

I sometimes wonder when I hear thing like" I'm glad, it serves them right" when a child has been injured doing no more than I suspect most of the forum did when they were kids,that to me suggests that the people who churn out that hateful rubbish have mental problems and must be classed as unsafe around any kids

[Rioja]

I sometimes wonder when I hear thing like" I'm glad, it serves them right" when a child has been injured doing no more than I suspect most of the forum did when they were kids,that to me suggests that the people who churn out that hateful rubbish have mental problems and must be classed as unsafe around any kids

 

It's odd isn't it? Some people seem to take a perverse pleasure and gratification in the pain and injury that these children received.

 

They lit a fire. They had an accident. They got burnt. To revel in it and to wish even worse injuries on them seems bizarre.

[Vague_Boy]

The details:

 

Children burnt in Edlington model car fuel fire

 

Seven children in Doncaster suffered burns, some of them severe, when they caused an explosion trying to light a fire with model car fuel.

 

The youngsters, aged between seven and 13, poured nitrous methane on a brazier when they tried to start the fire in Edlington, Doncaster.

 

The fuel ignited and exploded, causing severe burns to the faces and chests of some of the children.

 

It is thought some of them could be left permanently scarred.

 

Crews were called to the address at about 1745 BST on Monday.

[chem1st]

No I didn't start fires as a child, never went near a bonfire unsupervised and certantly didn't have access to any sort of lighters or accelerants

 

I'm assuming your female if you didn't start fires, us males love fire and if I had a son that didn't have an obsession with fire at some point I'd be seriously worried about them.

 

From what I've heard, they were supervised, albeit by the mother on her own (no doubt busy tidying up/distracted etc. 9 kids are a handful!), rubbish was been burnt in the brazier in the garden, the fire was dying down and nitromethane (model car fuel) was poured on by one of the kids, much like a bloke pours petrol on a fire.

 

Nitromethane ain't petrol and it behaves differently, however you would not expect a child to know this (unless they'd experimented with it themselves - which would be highly unlikely), been taught about it at school (Near on impossible), or learnt elsewhere.

 

Petrol goes into cars and is used to light fires very often by adults.

Nitromethane goes into RC cars, popular with children (and much better than a computer game or the tv).

 

One can then reasonably assume a child would think of nitromethane as they do petrol and imitate the action of the majority of blokes of a bonfire night and pour a bit of it on a fire to get it going.

 

Nitromethane is commonly sold in 20% blends in Litre bottles for the purpose of fuelling RC cars.

 

Here is an

of explosions all made with exactly/less than a 1/10th of a Litre (however combined with nitric acid-being used as an oxidising agent, note nitromethane already contains oxygen).

 

Children also have a potential to throw things into fires. Maybe some alkaline batteries leaking KOH? (KOH would make nitromethane more likely to explode you see).

 

Anyhow, it sounds like some innocent action, led to the nitromethane explosion, which presumably showered the people nearby in burning embers etc. of the rubbish been burnt in the garden.

 

We all burn rubbish in the garden from time to time, its legal, its sensible, cost effective and often better for the environment than landfill/fuel intensive recycling.

 

A very unfortunate accident, which will be leading to some nasty scars (fortunately nothing worse).

 

What needs to be asked is, how to prevent it happening again?

 

Social services? No, that would be stupid, that wasn't the issue.

Better safety information to be given when purchasing the fuel (for adults and children, especially adults to explain to children)? Yes, that would be good.

Better teaching of science at school, including showing children controlled explosions? Yes, even better, explosions are interesting and hammer home the safety message.

 

Let's hope they get better soon, and maybe teach them the chemistry of what happened so something positive is gained from this incident.