{"id":128427,"date":"2026-03-03T14:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/128427\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T14:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:12:07","slug":"pennsylvania-teen-hospitalized-after-trying-viral-fire-breathing-social-media-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/128427\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania teen hospitalized after trying viral ‘fire-breathing’ social media trend"},"content":{"rendered":"

PITCAIRN, Pa. (WPVI) — Authorities in western Pennsylvania say a teenager is lucky to be alive after trying a new ‘fire-breathing’ challenge on social media involving isopropyl alcohol.<\/p>\n

The teen from Pitcairn, Allegheny County, is now in the hospital, intubated and being treated for burns to the face and chest.<\/p>\n

“Luckily, in this particular case, it did not burn the building down,” said Al Hussey, Wilmerding Borough Fire Marshal. “But somebody really got hurt, and, you know, is going to have life-altering injuries.”<\/p>\n

Parents are being urged to pay close attention to what their children have access to when it comes to household products.<\/p>\n

“If they’re doing their hair with chemicals, if they’re taking isopropyl alcohol in the room, or any type of fingernail polish remover. Obviously, monitor your lighters and your matches and educate your children,” said Hussey.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, there have been multiple cases of children injured after allegedly being inspired by trends or stunts online.<\/p>\n

A 9-year-old in Illinois suffered third-degree burns <\/a>when a toy he put into the microwave burst. A 7-year-old apparently trying to copy the same challenge ended up in a coma.<\/p>\n

The toy company says it worked with social media companies to remove videos showing misuse of the product.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITCAIRN, Pa. (WPVI) — Authorities in western Pennsylvania say a teenager is lucky to be alive after trying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59793,28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-128427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-59793","9":"tag-pennsylvania","10":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","11":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}