Teen Finds Out Why Dousing His Chest With Alcohol and Lighting Himself on Fire Isn't the Wisest Choice

"I don't know," he said. "I wasn't thinking really."

That's what a 15-year-old Kentucky boy had to say about dousing his chest with alcohol and then lighting himself on fire.

"Literally after it got puttin' out it was already blistering," the bandaged teen told WKYT-TV. "It's just hard."

Image source: WKYT-TV

The teen said he was mimicking "fire challenge" videos he'd seen online, which are pretty much exactly what they sound like.

"It just automatically went and burst," the boy, who declined to be named or show his face on camera, told the station.

Firefighters responded to the scene last week and treated the boy for burns and took him to a hospital, WKYT reported. He suffered second-degree burns.

"What they don't show at the end of the videos is the consequences of doing this, getting second- and third-degree burns," Lexington Fire Department Captain Chris Harrod told WKYT.

Child services have been notified, WKYT reported. Police were also investigating.

"Fire challenge" videos seem to have been gaining in popularity, though like with many Internet trends, fake stories inevitably follow: A hoax story about a Buffalo, New York, teenager dying after undertaking the challenge was posted on a parody site.

Nevertheless, the stunts have generated their own hashtag (#firechallenge), the Washington Post noted.

And the videos posted online appear all too real (content warning: Graphic images and rough language ahead):

(H/T: Chicago Tribune)