Florida Child Injury Law Blog

Archive for the ‘Burns & Fireworks Injuries’ Category

Reading a recent article in the St. Petersburg Times about a 7 year old child who was playing with a lighter setting off a house fire which took firefighters 15 mintues to contain, reminds us all of the need to educate our children about the dangers of  playing with fire.

Child fire safety education is important early in a child’s life. Playing with fire at a early age can lead to fires, burns, and severe scarring which can permanently injury a child for life.

A wonderful website for fire safety for children can be found at Kids Health. This website offers great safety tips on how you can educate your child while making sure your home is safe.  Adult supervision and education are important to  preventing a fire such as the one in the link listed above.

Additional safety information is available on our Florida Child Injury Lawyer website in the document library. Click here for a resource entitled  ”Fire Safety 101.”

A recent report shows a  growing trend of injuries involving children and treadmills  is becoming worse each day.  A study, by researchers according to the article, at Our Lady’s Children Hospital found that a  total of 12 children (eight girls and four boys) were identified with friction burn injuries sustained from treadmills from January 2006 to March 2008, with the number of injuries recorded increasing fourfold between 2006 and 2007.

The injuries that can occur from treadmills can be life threatening. They include pediatric friction burns and require specialist care with the risk of long-term functional and cosmetic problems, split skin grafting, and others.

Research suggests the designs of treadmills should be enhanced to help prevent children from playing on this type of equipment.  Home treadmill injuries can be prevented by close supervision of children.

In a horrific event in Valrico, a man tried to light his girlfriend’s son on fire by pooring gasoline on the child.  The man, Christopher A. Koberstine was jailed late Sunday with a felony aggravated assault charge. An arrest affidavit states he threw the gasoline on the victim during an argument at about 11:30 p.m.  Prosecutors reminded Judge Gregory Holder that there has been a string of these types of accidents recently.

Stay in touch for updates on this horrific act.