With emergency services warning of rising burn injuries at this time of year, we take a look at the life-threatening dangers of playing with fire
WORDS: LOUISE BATY, LAUREN GREGORY.
With fireworks, sparklers and fires lighting up the sky, Bonfire Night can be a lot of fun. But sadly, a rising number of people will remember this time of year for traumatic reasons. In November 2021, emergency calls to the London Fire Brigade reached a five-year high.
Now, with UK councils cancelling organised events due to the cost-of-living crisis, firework sales have surged and many fear that an increase in DIY displays and bonfires may cause a spike in accidents. Children’s Burns Trust reports that over 550 children are taken to A&E around 5 November each year, with rocket and sparkler burn injuries being the most common and leaving victims scarred for life. Woman investigates and speaks to a mum who has experienced first hand the dangers bonfires can pose…
‘MY TODDLERS ARE SCARRED FOR LIFE’
Prue Mathiesen, 36, lives with her husband Adam, 30, and their sons Xander, four, and Tanner, three.
Xander and Tanner loved being outdoors on our family farm, helping me and their dad Adam with feeding the sheep and collecting firewood.
That was exactly what we were doing in 2022, as the boys and I built a bonfire together. Watching me place branches in a pile, Xander, then two, and Tanner, one, carefully did the same.
They watched from a safe distance as I struck a match. When the fire wouldn’t light, I put some cardboard boxes on top. As I turned briefly to pick up another box, there was a deafening bang and an explosion threw me to the ground.
Feeling heat, I turned to see huge flames shooting from the fire.
Xander and Tanner were stumbling to me, screaming and with their faces red raw, burnt and swelling before my eyes. A patch of Xander’s hair was missing, and smoke was coming off him.
Terrifying injuries
In a panic, I pulled out my phone and called Adam, who was on the other side of the farm, telling him to get back to the house, before scooping up our sobbing boys. Dashing inside, I put them under a freezing shower, doing my best to reassure them as they cried uncontrollably.
I couldn’t make sense of what had happened. We’d built fires safely, so many times before.
