A Maryland family was making s'mores with an indoor fire pit they were gifted for Christmas, when the kit sparked a fire in their living room and critically injured a 9-year-old boy.
The boy and his mother were using the fire pit bowl on a coffee table when the fire broke out at their townhome on Crooked Tree Lane in Laurel, Maryland, late Monday afternoon, the boy's father told News4.
Medics took the 9-year-old boy to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, the Anne Arundel County Fire Department said. He was still in the hospital Wednesday, his father said.
His mom was also hurt. She was treated at the scene, the fire department said.
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Firefighters managed to quickly contain and extinguish the fire.
Investigators said the indoor ignitable liquid flame kit the family was using to make s'mores caused the accidental fire.
In December, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning about such fire pits and said the products were linked to two deaths and more than 60 serious burn injuries since 2019. People should immediately stop using the fire kits and throw them out, the commission said.
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"Igniting a pool of alcohol or other liquid fuel in a fire pit’s open container creates an uncontrollable pool fire, which can suddenly produce larger, hotter flames that can spread beyond the fire pit product," the commission said.
The boy's father said the fire pit was an early Christmas present and they were unaware of the dangers.
