Distraught mother Brandi Owens described how her child, Timiyah Landers, is now intensive care in hospital and attached to a ventilator after she took part in the 'Fire Challenge' YouTube craze, which sees people rubbing themselves down with flammable liquid before setting themselves on fire. Timiyah has burns on 49 percent of her body.
Her mother told Fox 2 Detroit on Friday that Landers and two of her friends were hanging out the girl's room before the ordeal happened. She explained how she had made them pancakes and had gone for a nap when she heard a loud explosion.
© Facebook/ Brandi Owens
"From her knees to her hair, on fire," the mother recounted. She said her fiancée quickly put her daughter in the bathtub and started spraying her down with water. "Her hair was on fire. He started with her hair and started spraying her but the fire started rising and rising and I'm trying to rip her clothes off," she said.
As she sought to get her daughter to the hospital, Owens had the other two girls admit they were taking part in the YouTube craze, which first kicked off when YouTuber 1BlazinEagle1 in 2012 set fire to his chest hair. By 2014 the video had over 100,000 views.
Brandi wants YouTube to ban the videos and warn other parents about the hazard: "Monitor these kids.
"Especially with these phones," she told Fox 20. "If I could, with this happening, my kids would never be able to go on social media.
"No more iPhones. Nothing," she said.
Comment: See also: Devolution of society: A quick list of stupid and dangerous internet challenges from recent years