VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — "There was more beach chairs, you know, we're just getting everything together. And then before you know it just boom. And screaming." Those are the words from Virginia Beach mom Eris Harmonia, describing some frightening moments surrounding a fire pit in her driveway that injured four children in her North End neighborhood.
There was about 16 kids here getting ready to do marshmallows and hot dogs on a fire pit about this size right here. And then all of a sudden there's a boom. And people are on fire, chairs are on fire," Eris Harmonia said.
Harmonia said she is still processing the frightening moments.
"There was other kids coming in from the neighborhood to come use our fire pit for marshmallows and stuff, and in some kind of process, somebody introduced an accelerant while all of the gathering and without anybody knowing it exploded immediately," Harmonia said.
The fire involved a 16-year-old, a 17-year-old, and two 5-year-old twins, according to fire officials. All taken to local hospitals, I asked how they're doing? "They're—- it's first degree burns for some. It's just...they just had to clean them and put bandage on, and then everybody was released last night, but there's two that have 3rd degree burns. That, that's, that's going to be a journey for them. But everyone is alive and will recover," Harmonia said.
I asked whether the individual who tossed the accerlerant thought they were helping get the fire started. "That's what we think. We think it was—- because it was not an adult. It was somebody that was underage who thought that they were helping. But I do not do my own yard work. I do not have any accelerators or anything that could be used, so it was very confusing to the fire department and myself, but it came from the outside in a beach bucket. Somebody put accelerator in a, a, a child's beach bucket."
With so many people getting ready to grill this holiday weekend, Eris is encouraging everyone to think safety."Just make sure that that everybody knows how to put out a fire. Everybody knows stop, drop and roll. I was shocked that the two older children didn't know stop, drop and roll. They were running with their clothes on fire."
Harmonia said she had taken deliberate safety precautions before setting up the fire pit, including moving her vehicles and keeping the pit away from the house. She encourages all parents to go over fire safety drills and reminders with their kids.
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