Safety experts warn it's the acetone vapor in nail polish remover that causes the flash explosion.
A nail polish-remover spill next to a lit candle on her bed caused 14-year-old Kennedy to catch on fire. The teen screamed for help as her room became engulfed in flames.
“It kind of just exploded and set me and my bed on fire and my entire room,” she tells Inside Edition Digital over Zoom of the harrowing ordeal that took place last month. “As I'm getting up and I'm making sure that my hair stops being on fire and I took my clothes off because they were on fire and stuff like that ... I was just making sure that I could get out and not on fire.”
Her siblings heard her cries and got her out, downstairs and called 911.
Kennedy was taken to Shriners Children’s Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, where she’s been under the care of Dr. Sarah Higginson, a burn and trauma surgeon. The fire caused third-degree burns on her arm, stomach and thigh. Kennedy, who had to have several skin grafts, was getting ready for cheerleading at the time. She was removing her nail polish as part of the requirements to be in uniform on the team.
“She's doing really well. She doesn't make a fist. You can see she hesitates a little,” explains Higginson after seeing Kennedy’s hand in passing. “When you're burned and it's through all the layers of the skin, to be able to heal that in a timely fashion without excessive scarring, we take just the very top layer of skin from an unburnt area and put it over those areas to heal and close the burn wounds," Higginson explains.
Another teenager, 13-year-old Piper Mather of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, survived a similar accident last March after doing her nails at home next to a lit candle.
“It just like a boom,” Piper recounts to Inside Edition Digital. “I was kind of in just a ball of flames.”
Piper says “her first instinct was to” run downstairs, grab the hose nozzle at the sink and spray herself with water. Her younger brother, who she was babysitting that night since her parents were on a date, tossed his bowl of mac and cheese, filled it with water and doused her back. They ran next door to the neighbor for help.
Piper was life-flighted to Shriners Children's in Galveston, Texas, where she spent the next three months being treated for the third degree burns on 38% of her body.
“You would think people do spas all the time with candles and of course do their nails, because that's what you do when you make your own spa days at home. You would never guess that that would happen,” Piper says, looking back to that awful day.
Safety experts warn it's the acetone vapor in nail polish remover that causes the flash explosion. They performed a reenactment at the Morris County Public Safety Training Academy in New Jersey to demonstrate how dangerous it is.
“The vapors will off-gas, especially in an enclosed environment such as a bedroom or bathroom,” explains retired City of Orange Deputy Fire Chief, Matthew Piserchio, who leads firefighter training in Morris County, New Jersey. “You're soaking your nails next to a candle — next to any ignition device you could possibly call the vapors to ignite.”
“I would've thought only if you pour it onto the actual flame that would happen,” Piper says now. “But it was just the fumes in the air just ignited somehow onto me. But my hands were the ones in the acetone, and I've got nothing on my hands.”
“I didn't think about it,” Kennedy replies when asked if she knew nail polish remover could be an accelerant next to a flame, even though the bottles are labeled flammable.
What should you do in a situation where your on fire?
Stop, Drop and Roll is still a good practice, Piserchio advises, of what’s taught to young kids in school. “Cover [your] face, get as low as possible to the ground and roll around back and forth. The worst thing you can possibly do stand up and run. It’s going to create more burns. Get onto the ground, remove your clothes if you can. Cover your face and roll around.”
Piper has been wearing a compression sleeve under her clothes for about a year now. It helps reduce scarring and discoloration on her skin. After hearing a similar incident happening to another teen, she offers solace.
“I just want her to know that everything's going to be fine. She's probably going through the same thing I did. It’s a hard recovery—yes. But true too, each time you tell your story it gets a little bit easier. It’s ok to feel your feelings, and you’re going to feel mad, bad, and really sad for a while. It’s ok. You are brave and you are loved. Even though we’ve never met, I am praying for you m’friend. I see you.” Piper says with confidence and optimism.
The message from playing the titular role in the school musical, “Annie,” must have rubbed off on her.
“To see a 14-year-old girl go through something so horrific, and then less than a year later, she's singing to everyone, ‘The sun's going to come out tomorrow.’ It's going to be okay. You're going to get through whatever you're going through. We were all in tears and so proud of her,” Piper’s dad, Todd Mather, tells Inside Edition Digital.
Piper has another skin grafting surgery coming up in a few weeks plus multiple laser surgeries over the next few years to help cosmetically.
Now, after a few weeks of healing and therapy, Kennedy is finally able to do some things like shower and brush her hair on her own. She’s looking forward to getting back to a normal schedule including school and cheering, especially for basketball season. She too, will wear a compression sleeve like Piper.
For a 14-year-old, Higginson says Kennedy has been a champ. “She really handled this with a great bit of grace and maturity from the start of the injury. I mean, she really owned kind of those portions that could have gone better for her at home,” Higginson says.
“I learned a lot of things,” Kennedy adds. “I learned mostly to be more aware of the things around me to just take a little bit more precaution. I know that firsthand now and just be more aware of accidents.”
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