November 14, 2013
A two-year-old girl has been severely burned in suburban Atlanta in a freak accident after gasoline poured on an outdoor slide to make it slicker ignited from static electricity, police said on Tuesday.
The toddler and her four-year-old sister were playing on a swing set on Saturday when the gasoline was put on the slide, said Keith Brooks, chief deputy of the Walton County Sheriff's Office.
Investigators do not know which of the two siblings poured the gasoline but determined, after finding no other ignition source, that static electricity sparked the blaze, Brooks said.
"This was a freak accident," he said. "It's definitely strange that something like this would happen."
The two-year-old was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Atlanta and put into a medically induced coma to help her cope with the pain from her critical injuries, Brook said.
No charges are expected to be filed, the chief deputy said.
Jennifer Lollis, center of photo posted to the left, says 4-year-old Kayleigh, left, helped save her sister’s life. Alyssa, right, was critically injured when gasoline poured on a slide ignited Saturday in Walton County.
“If it wouldn’t have been for Kayleigh, she probably wouldn’t be here,” Jennifer Lollis, the girls’ mother, said in the waiting room of the Grady burn unit.
Lollis, of Covington, said her daughters were spending the weekend with their father when she got the phone call about the accident. She immediately went to Grady, where doctors have told her Alyssa is fortunate to have survived.
“My world has completely turned upside down,” Lollis said. “I’m still in shock.”
On Monday, Alyssa endured a four-hour surgery, and many more will follow, Lollis said. Many of Alyssa’s burns are third-degree, but her back is the most severely burned and has doctors most concerned.
Lollis said her youngest daughter likely faces months in the hospital, followed by an extensive recovery period. But one of the hardest parts for Lollis is knowing that the incident could have been avoided.
“Anything can happen, just like that. Children will be children,” Lollis said. “They should never be left unattended, ever. This was a very preventable thing that happened.”
Partial Source: Reuters
Does not make sense that nobody noticed the children pouring gasoline on the slide. How did they obtain the fuel in the first place?
ReplyDeleteThis is a sad story.
ReplyDelete