Woodland Girl Recovering After 4th Of July Sparkler Ignites Her Clothing

WOODLAND (CBS13) - Six-year-old Skylah Carr is in a hospital bed suffering from second and third degree burns over 15 percent of her body, injuries that will keep her at Shriners Hospital for weeks.

"The whole back side, it was on fire and this right side so when she was twirling that sparkler around the spark had to come right down and it hit the back of her skirt," said Leon Carr, her father.

Leon had just lit the sparkler and handed it to her. He was standing right next to her.

"It was one second 'oh my god I'm on fire.' The next second I was tackling her," said Leon. "It took probably about three seconds to get the fire out and there was nothing left of that skirt."

The family bought the seemingly safe and sane fireworks and taught Skylah how to hold the sparkler correctly.

When Woodland police showed up, they determined the family did nothing wrong.

"The parents were right there. They had water available. Children were being supervised and the fireworks, I myself looked at them and they were the safe and sane fireworks," said Sgt. Steven Sexton, Woodland police.

Leon won't be letting Skylah play with sparklers again, and he won't either.

He blames his daughter's clothing for catching fire so quickly, and he'd like to see all children's clothing become flame resistant, like pajamas and Halloween costumes, to protect other kids from ending up like this.

"She's one resilient little kid," said Leon.

Skylah is going to be at Shriners Hospital for at least four weeks. She is going to have to do some skin graphs; but she is resilient and, all things considered, she is doing quite well.