Five-Year-Old Boy in Critical Condition After Playing With Lighter

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Injuries to minors and children are among the most heartbreaking tragedies Seattle personal injury attorneys encounter, especially when they leave a child fighting for his or her life, as one recent Lynnwood apartment fire did.

A five-year-old boy has been hospitalized in Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after receiving burns on 30 percent of his body last Wednesday, July 27. He was still in critical condition this weekend, according to police spokeswoman Shannon Sessions.

Firefighters say that the boy was playing with fingernail polish remover and a lighter, causing a fire in the bedroom of the apartment where he lived. The boy’s mother was home and called 911. Fire and medic units responded.

Burns are an especially common injury for babies and young children. They are innately curious and their skin is more sensitive than adults’. Fires kill more than 600 children age 14 and under every year and injure approximately 47,000 others.

According to the National SAFE KIDS Campaign and the United States Fire Administration, more than a third of children between the ages of 6 and 14 have played with fire at least once, and boys are nearly twice as likely as girls to have played with fire.

This is the second fire in nine months caused by a young boy playing with a lighter in Lynnwood. On November 13, 2010, a seven-year-old caused $60,000 in damage. Fortunately, he and his mother were both uninjured.