DELTONA, Fla.,None — Volusia County investigators are trying to figure out if a 12-year-old boy was intentionally set on fire. Eyewitnesses say they saw Jamal Hinds and two other kids playing with fire in the front yard of a home on Flamingo Avenue in Deltona (see map) Thursday evening.
AT THE SCENE: Deltona Boy Badly Burned INTERVIEWS: Witnesses Describe Incident
Deputies received a 911 call just before 6:30pm from a boy who frantically told dispatchers that his friend was playing with fire and got burned.
Emergency responders first transported Hinds to Bert Fish Memorial in Orange City. After stabilizing the boy, a sheriff's office helicopter flew the boy to Orlando Regional Medical Center. He was later transported from ORMC to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Women and Children.
Friday morning, the boy was is in critical condition with second-degree burns to approximately 25 percent of his body. Most of the burns are to the boy's face and chest.
"The boy's shirt was still smoking on the ground when I got there," neighbor Christopher Rike said.
Rike says the incident may have been a deliberate act.
"One little kid poured perfume on another little kid, lit a match and lit him on fire," Rike said.
Another eyewitness claims it was probably an accident. He says all three boys were playing with aerosol cans and lighters just before Hinds was burned.
Neighbors also said there were no parents at home at the time.
"No parents at the house, but I contacted the mom as soon as I got over there," Rike said.
Sheriff's office investigators interviewed witnesses and took statements in an effort to determine what happened. Based on preliminary statements, the victim and three other boys were in the front yard of the home playing with a bath spray and a lighter when the combination ignited a fire.
The State Fire Marshal's Office is investigating the incident.
The names of the other children involved have not been released.
WFTV
