INDIANAPOLIS–If you’re using a grill or having a bonfire on July 4th or anytime around the holiday, you’re being reminded to have some water handy to make sure the fire is out. Dr. Brian Wagers, an emergency room doctor at Riley Children’s Health, said children can get burned easily.

He said bonfires can be dangerous if people forget to put water on it.

“Once the flames go down, they kind of forget about it and I’ve seen several children who have tripped and fallen into the embers that are still hot that have caused significant injury,” said Wagers.

He said he’s also seen children in the ER who have tried throwing gas on a bonfire and have “suffered some pretty significant injuries”.

He said grills are dangerous because of how hot they get.

“Every time I grill out…we always caution my kids, don’t touch the grill,” he said. “Once everybody has their belly full from the good food that came from the grill, they forget that the grill was 500 degrees just a few minutes ago and it’s still probably two or three hundred degrees which can still burn skin quite quickly.”

He said if you can’t get the charcoal to catch up and light, don’t squirt a lot of lighter fluid on it.

“Essentially that’s asking for a bomb to go off, right? You’re putting a highly flammable liquid and its vapors over an already ignited source. So, it’s just a recipe for disaster.”

Photo by Vincent Keiman on Unsplash