Boy playing with matches catches fire

Boy, 7, playing with matches, catches fire
by Douglass Dowty / The Post-Standard
Wednesday October 01, 2008, 10:11 PM

SYRACUSE, NY -- A 7-year-old boy who had run a block -- engulfed in flames -- was rescued by two Syracuse city police officers Wednesday evening, police said.

The boy, whose name was not released, suffered second- and third-degree burns to the left side of his body -- from his face, down his torso, to his leg, said Lt. Joe Cecile.

Officers Jeffrey Fleming and Scott Fura were patrolling about 7:30 p.m. when they saw flames near a boy running across a South Side street, Cecile said. The officers quickly realized the child was on fire.

The officers grabbed the boy and rolled him in wet grass in the 1300 block of South State Street to extinguish the fire.

The boy was conscious at the scene and taken to University Hospital with burns covering 25 percent of his body, Cecile said.

The youngster caught fire as he and his friends played with matches in a vacant lot, Cecile said.