Human Candle
Back in Grade 7, during summer holidays, I was riding home from my cousin's house. I had cut through the park and saw this kid that was in my class standing over a concrete pad in an unusual manner, so I stopped to investigate. As I approached, I noticed that he was playing with a box of matches. He lit a book of matches, threw it on the concrete, and then proceeded to pour some methyl alcohol onto the flaming matches. At first, the fire grew larger, but then seemed to die out. Now remember for a moment, that methanol flames are almost invisible. So the poor bastard goes ahead an pours the rest of the bottle onto the matchbook. Bad move. A large woosh and the boy's entire cranium is engulfed in flame, seemingly eminating from his collar. Absolute horror. He was running about frantically, and I'm there shouting for him to drop and roll to extinguish the flame, but I'm not sure he could hear me. After what seemed to be 2 minutes, he dove onto a gravel path and ground his face into the rocky surface, and eventually got the fire out. He was so panicked that he wouldn't go home for fear that his mum would go apeshit and give him a good beating, so he followed me home, where my neighbours took him to the hospital.

The next day I saw him, and his entire face was covered in white blisters, and tinged soot-black. There wasn't much scarring in the end. Lucky bastard.

5 years later in high school, his twin brother pulled an equally stupid stunt with a Zippo, but that wasn't very spectacular, or noteworthy.
( Hosehead, Sun 6 Nov 2005, 20:46, Reply)