17-yr-old freaked out when a fireball from the bonfire 'hit' him square in the face — his instinctive action may have saved his life
One incident can turn into a lesson that a person might keep repeating to people around them. A teen boy went through something like that after he experienced severe burns from a bonfire. The 17-year-old Garrett Albertson felt like he was "going to die" when the incident happened, as he couldn't see anything at all when the fire reached his face. All of it happened because one of the kids in Albertson's family added an accelerant to the fire, and it got out of control, as reported by WAVY on Saturday, December 6, 2025.
"I thought I was going to die. I thought it was over because I couldn't see anything at all. All I could hear was fire. All I could see was fire, because it was all in my face, it just burned, and the pain just didn’t stop," the teen recounted. He had to be taken to the hospital immediately because of the burns on his face and body. Albertson also realized the importance of fire safety after the incident happened on Thanksgiving night. The Gloucester teen could remember that the kids in his family wanted to start a fire for Thanksgiving, and it all went south after that. His younger cousin was also around when the fire grew out of control.
"They wanted to have the fire or whatever — it’s me and my little cousin, we're having the fire and kids doing stuff we weren't supposed to, like adding stuff to the fire, pouring gas at first," Albertson revealed. "While my cousin was pouring the accelerant into the fire, it went up and got his hands, so he got scared, and he dropped the can, and when he did, the fire shot out and hit me in the face." He did a simple action that might have saved him from further harm. "I didn’t know what to do, so I stopped, dropped, and rolled. I got on the ground, and I’m rolling around, trying to put it out."
Albertson spoke to the outlet from his bed at VCU Medical Center, Richmond. His parents had to take him to the hospital immediately after learning what had happened. The teen hoped that people would learn from his example and follow fire safety rules religiously at all times. "Bringing awareness to how something so little could turn so big, so be careful, pay attention to what you’re doing," Albertson remarked. He was glad that he made it out of the incident alive. The teen's family was trying their best to cheer him up as he recovered. A helicopter was flown in front of his room by his uncle in the US Army, according to the outlet.
In another story, a three-year-old boy suffered severe burns because of the use of a table-top fire pit with technical issues. The boy, Sebastian Reynoso, was making s'mores with his cousins and uncle when the fire pit exploded and burned him severely. The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission had issued a consumer alert about such fire pits that use alcohol and considered them a fire hazard. However, the family was not aware of it. The boy had to go through multiple procedures at a hospital. So, the community stepped in to help the parents during their difficult time.