Seth Smith, 12, survives burns

A 12-year-old Cottonwood boy severely burned on New Year's Day could be in a Sacramento hospital for up to a year.

"He's had five surgeries, and they're expecting him to have at least five more," said Delia Farias, his great-aunt.

Seth Smith suffered burns to 85 percent of his body - most of them third degree - she said. He's already had a number of skin grafts, where new skin tissue is transplanted over the burns, and will likely need them again each year as long as he keeps growing.

"He's got a real long road ahead of him," Farias said.

A spunky youngster who loved the outdoors and skateboarding, Smith's life changed in an explosive instant. Along with four other boys from his neighborhood, he was using a fuel can in an attempt to burn a fence post in a backyard.

"They tried to dump more fuel on it while it was burning, and the can exploded," said Henry Lennick, who lives next door.

None of the other boys was injured.

The explosion shook his house, said Lennick, who had been watching television and rushed outside. There he saw a big circle of black smoke rising up from the neighboring yard. On the ground was Smith, on fire.

A neighbor tried to tamp down the flames with a sweatshirt, and Lennick said he joined the effort. The fire was hard to extinguish though.

"I think his clothes were pretty soaked with fuel," Lennick said.

After being taken by ambulance to Mercy Medical Center, Smith was flown by helicopter to the Universty of California at Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. He was then transferred to the Shriners Hospital there.

Here's been there since in critical condition, Farias said.

While the flames touched Smith for about a minute, she said his recovery in the hospital could take a year and his life will be forever altered.

Farias said she hopes the tragic incident will serve as a lesson to children and their parents about the dangers of playing with fire.

"You always want to make sure that you have any flammable liquids locked up," she said.

Among the four boys with Smith that day were two of Laura McDuffy's. She said parents should have been checking in on the boys more.

"Parents need to know what their kids are doing, all the time," McDuffy said.

Children are often fascinated by fire, so parents should limit their access to fuels, said Linda Galvan, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

"Parents need to be aware that there are dangers out there," she said.

Although Shriners is covering the costs of Smith's medical care, his family is incurring travel costs and taking time off work to visit him. So McDuffy said friends and family have set up the Seth Smith Recovery Fund at North Valley Bank.