The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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June 25, 2009

Burn victim shares story

Youngsters get a lesson in safety

By Robb Murray

MADISON LAKE — Brett Allen’s message to the kids gathered inside the Madison Lake Municipal Building was brief, but vivid.

It was September, he told the youngsters, and he was at a campfire with some friends. To inject some life into the fire, one of his friends decided to douse the flames with the contents of a gas can.

Not surprisingly, the gas worked. But the flames also crawled up the stream of liquid coming from the can and ignited what was inside. Allen’s friend instinctively threw the gas can out of his hands. Unfortunately, the flaming can struck Allen. And one look at this bare legs tells the story of what happened.

The Arlington man told this story, and showed his scarred-but-healing legs, to the group of kids from All Saints Elementary School. It was part of a fire safety program at the Madison Lake Fire Department.

In a way, his delivery relied somewhat on shock value.

“They ended up cutting skin off my legs and putting new skin on,” he told them.

And where’d they get the new skin?

“Came from my back,” he said, and described a process similar to grating cheese — doctors sliced skin off of his back and placed it onto his legs.

From a box behind him, he pulled the pants and underwear he’d worn that day.

“These are pretty scary,” he told the kids, then held up the pants — they are shredded and full of burn holes, and the underwear are barely recognizable.

“Whenever we have a fire,” he advised the kids, “we always need to have an adult around.”

His medical ordeal isn’t over. Allen still must make regular trips to a doctor to check on his healing legs. And for the next two years he’ll have to wear special long-lohn-like underwear that help hold and shape the new skin on his leg.

Kathy Lamont, the public education officer for the Madison Lake Fire and Rescue Department who organized the safety program, said she focused on basic fire safety measures.

She knows a little more about the consequences of fire than most: Her son, Kole Reichel, died in a fire 2003.

Ever since then, “I’ve always been freaked out about fire,” she said. She conquered that fear by becoming a member of the fire department. Now she volunteers in her newly formed public education position.

In her research preparing for the All Saints kids, she learned that in most cases where a kid is injured by a campfire, it happens the morning after. Kids don’t see any flames, and they assume there’s no danger.

Then they touch the campfire’s remnants and sustain burns on their fingers.

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