Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 27, 1993 TAG: 9305270278
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Police Sgt. J.A. Dudley said the boys were playing on an embankment about 10 feet above the tracks that run between the Bonnieville Motor Court and Lakeside Plaza when one of them poured the liquid on the ground.
At the same time - around 8:15 p.m. - two girls were striking matches or a lighter along the tracks, Dudley said.
The liquid ran down the embankment and ignited, Dudley said. The flames traveled up and engulfed one of the boys, whom witnesses identified as John Blankenship, 11.
Ray Huff, assistant chief with the Salem Rescue Squad, said the boy was burned from the knees up.
Blankenship was taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital, then flown to the University of Virginia's burn unit. His condition was critical late Wednesday, a spokesman there said.
The other boy, whom witnesses identified as Scott Meredith, 13, was burned on the legs and arms, Dudley said. He was taken to Lewis-Gale Hospital, where a nursing supervisor said late Wednesday he was still in the emergency room.
The two girls were not injured.
Michael Mollett had been working on a car with his son-in-law, Wayne Radford, when he heard children screaming. They ran down a hill to the tracks.
"He [Blankenship] was lying down and then he stood up," Mollett said. "When he stood up, that's when I started pulling clothes off him."
Mollett and Radford, along with other park residents, stayed with the children until rescue squad members arrived minutes later.
"He was burned from head to toe," said Daniel Weekley, a former steel mill worker who said he'd seen similar accidents happen to co-workers.
"I've seen it," said Rickie Byrd, another witness. "I don't care to see it again."
Memo: ***CORRECTION***