A child was burned during the burning of chametz on Nachal Luz Street in Beit Shemesh on erev yomtov. Ichud Hatzalah’s Moshe Teitlebaum reports the seven-year-old was burned over his upper body as a result of pouring a flammable liquid over the chametz fire. This caused the fire to momentarily rage out of control.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photo: Chadashot 24)
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4 Responses
A refuah shelaymah…..who would ever throw flamable liquids on a fire to burn chometz much less allow a child to do so?? Do people sell their common sense along with the chometz? Fortunately, there are much fewer of these stories in recent years, but even one tragic case like this is too many.
who gives or allows a 7 year old next to a fire with flammable liquids?
The burning of the chumatz has become it seems a fun event to see a raging fire
I was at the incident and saw the entire thing. The above is incorrect. The boy was not the one to put the flammable liquid on the fire. An adult poured the liquid from an RC lemon lime bottle. The fluid caught fire and jumped toward the bottle so the man threw the whole bottle into the fire and it splashed into the boy, igniting his pants and possibly his shirt. His father and others jumped on him and put out the fire and B”H my neighbors had a first aid kit and immediately applied water and burn shield. The liquid flowed down the sidewalk alight. I don’t recall who poured on the liquid but I agree that it was completely irresponsible. The fire was hot and burning just fine. There was no need for more fuel at the time. I hope the boy has a refua shelema.
I was at the fire in question, and know the family involved quite well (they’re both neighbors and Daven in the same Shul). The facts are slightly different than what was reported above. Specifically:
1. The child in question is 5, not 7 years old.
2. The child did NOT throw the lighter fluid onto the fire – some irresponsible adult – who then ran away – did so. The child was standing next to his father (a Rebbi at a local DL Yeshiva high school who also runs the after-davening children’s learning program in our Shul) at a reasonable distance from the fire – but when the genius threw the lighter fluid, some splashed on the child’s clothing and the flames flared up, lighting the clothing on fire. Another adult then jumped on top of the child to smother the flames.
The child suffered second-degree burns on both his arm and his chest, but was B”H sent home before Yom Tov. He is unfortunately facing a rather painful recovery, though he is expected to ultimately be fine. The name for Tehilim is Eliezer Hillel ben Zemira Sheindel.
Mo’adim Le’simcha from E”Y,
an Israeli Yid