Deputies: Teen badly burned after daring friends to ‘light him up’

A 16-year-old Pine Hills, Florida teen is on life support after participating in a “Facebook fire challenge” Monday night, according to officials. Local 10 News reports that Robert Seals, a 15 year-old California resident, recently burned 20% of his body after he “doused himself with rubbing alcohol, then dared a friend to light a match and put it to his clothes”.

Seals’ aunt, Lisa Oliphant, told the Orlando Sentinel that her nephew was playing with two other boys when he was set on fire. “You could literally see smoke and you could smell him – he was burning”.

Flames quickly covered his clothes and caused his “skin to fall off”, his aunt Lisa Oliphant said.

‘I see the little flick, and then my nephew’s running down the street on fire’.

Deputies said no charges were being filed against the teen’s friends, who stayed and talked with investigators, and the teen repeated his story to deputies at the hospital.

Footage of people doing the risky stunt where they pour a flammable liquid over themselves and set the accelerant on fire has spread across the Internet, and has sent a few to the hospital.

Esther Ruiz, who lives four doors down from where the incident occurred, said she could hear and smell Seals. “He did bodily harm and the boy’s big enough to know right from wrong”.