A young boy begged his mother to let him die after suffering severe burns when he was set on fire in a devastating accident during the school holidays. Twelve-year-old Hunter Jory was playing in a field with friends on August 18 when another child lit a small fire, sparking the incident. Later, a different individual threw a petrol can into the blaze, leaving the boy engulfed in flames.
The boy managed to run to a friend’s house, who called his mother Kim. She hurried him to a nearby GP surgery while they waited for an ambulance. Kim, from Sheffield, said her son was in so much pain he pleaded with her to end his suffering.
She said: “It was heartbreaking.
“When I got the call saying Hunter was in agony and needed to go to hospital, I assumed he’d been run over. I didn’t think for a minute that he’d been set on fire.
“I was mortified. One child lit a fire on a field using a flint of some sort. Another thought it would be a good idea to throw a can of fuel on it.”
When caught on fire, Hunter immediately fell to the ground and tried to roll to put out the flames, with his two friends trying to take his coat off him before he started running and eventually collapsed in front of a friend’s home.
Kim added: “The fire went up in flames and so did Hunter because he was stood close to it. He remembers his right hand side going up in flames.
“Hunter dropped and rolled and two friends tried to take his coat off him. He ran and collapsed outside a friends house.
“I took him to the doctors because there’s one five doors down. They put a cannula in and kept putting water on him until the ambulance came.
“He was saying ‘mum, just kill me'”.
She said: “It took skin and tissue on his right thigh, leg and knee. It took hair on the right side of his head, it took the back of his ear off, skin off his forehead, nose, lips, eyelids and hands from trying to take his clothes off. His skin was still cooking when we got to the hospital and he was screaming ‘put me out’. The boy was rushed into theatre where surgeons removed and dressed the burnt skin.”
The ordeal will not end after Hunter is discharged from hospital. His mum has revealed her son will need repeated skin grafts until he reaches adulthood because scarring tissue doesn’t stretch.
“His face isn’t the same face as before. I’ve explained it to Hunter but he hasn’t really processed it yet.”
Kim said she is determined to raise awareness about the dangers of fire. She admitted feeling angry but stressed that the children involved were not to blame, adding that more education is needed to stop youngsters playing with fire. She said Hunter was fortunate to run towards help, as going the other way could have left him alone and in agony.
Hunter’s friends have set up a fundraising page to adapt his home, as doctors fear he may struggle with stairs. His best friend Jayden will race at Skegness Raceway on Thursday, August 28, to support him.