A four-year-old boy was turned into a "living torch" after he threw a toy bucket of petrol on to a fire, the High Court in Belfast heard yesterday. Andrew Cherry, of Mountview Road, Ballynahinch, Co Down, suffered burns to half his body in the accident at his home in 1988. Now aged 14, he is claiming compensation against his father's employer, the Department of the Environment.
His lawyer, Mr Donnell Deeny QC, said Andrew's father, Hugh, worked as a road repairer and kept machinery and containers of fuel and water on a low-loader trailer which he parked at his home.
Andrew's parents were visiting another son in hospital when he poured petrol from a can into his plastic bucket. "He went into the living room where his sister was watching TV and threw the petrol on the fire," said Mr Deeny. "The fire was not alight but the embers were there from the night before and tragically there was an immediate conflagration. The boy was set on fire like a living torch."
The DoE has denied liability and has brought in the boy's parents as third parties to the action.