Fire safety and an awareness of one’s surroundings is an important lesson that often goes unheeded. We rush through our days, often forgetting the little things. One teen in Ohio is speaking out about her terrifying experience so others will learn from her mistake.
On January 5, 2024, 14-year-old Kennedy was removing her nail polish next to a candle when the vapors from the remover caused the bottle to explode in her hands. The flames ignited and she was quickly set on fire. She and her siblings extinguished her and closed the door to the room to prevent the fire from spreading. Kennedy suffered third-degree burns but is expected to make a full recovery.
Kennedy is a cheerleader at her high school in Xenia, Ohio. She was getting ready for the big basketball game when the incident occurred.
“I had to take my fingernail polish off because it's not in uniform and as I was taking it off I had a candle near me on my bed,” Kennedy told People. “As I was setting the bottle of nail polish remover down on my bed the fumes kind of just mixed together and the bottle exploded in my hand. It caught me and everything near me on fire.”
It all happened so fast. “I was really scared and I was screaming and just trying to do as much as I could to stop me being on fire and just get out,” Kennedy went on to say. “It’s nothing I've ever been through before.”
Thankfully two of her siblings helped her. They were also smart enough to close the door to her room and get out of the house to wait for emergency personnel.
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Kennedy’s mother, Brandi, was not home when the incident happened but rushed back to take care of her kids. She arrived as first responders did. “It was a horrific scene of her being covered in bubbles and welts and her skin being melted away,” she recalled. “It was a wild experience.”
Kennedy was rushed to Shriners Children’s Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, where she was treated by Dr. Sara Higginson. Kennedy immediately underwent a procedure to clean the burns and get rid of dead skin. A couple weeks later, she underwent a surgical excision and grafting procedure.
“Kennedy ended up having full thickness injuries on her abdomen, both thighs and then her right arm. And the other areas she was able to heal without having to have it excised and grafted,” Dr. Higginson, who is the chief of staff for the hospital, explained. “But she did have pretty extensive injuries to kind of the whole front side of her.”
Kennedy’s full recovery will take about a year. She will continue to get laser treatments and physical and occupational therapy to aid her healing journey. Her mom is proud at how far her daughter has come in a short amount of time. “Kennedy's a little warrior. She really has pushed through everything and they're really surprised at how well she's healing,” Brandi gushed. “Three weeks later … it's just amazing how it looks now. Doctors say she's going to have minimal scarring, minimal everything. Their goal is to make sure she's comfortable with her body afterwards so we are very appreciative of them.”
Brandi and Kennedy are telling their story so others can learn from Kennedy’s mistake. “Most kids in high school know that an open flame and an accelerant don't belong together but sometimes we just don't think of these things,” Brandi stated. “And then teaching your kids fire safety as well because if they didn't know to shut that door, they all could have all been hurt. So just basic fire safety and awareness of your surroundings because things can change at the drop of a hat. Accidents really do happen.”
Dr. Higgins is also proud of Kennedy for speaking out about fire safety. “A big plus is that Kennedy understands how it could have been different and her desire to make sure that we get the message out,” she mused. “We need to really think about what am I doing right now and how can I make this safer so that it doesn't happen to somebody else? Because it's a fairly common scenario for a teenager so I love that she really wants to make sure to get a safety message out about flames and flammable liquids.”
