TikTok 'Fireball Challenge' Trend Goes Wrong: Turns Kid Into Human Fireball

A social media trend has emerged on TikTok, and it has sent several children to the hospital, forcing them to fight for their lives.

Commonly referred to as the 'Fireball Challenge', kids are now using either an aerosol can or rubbing alcohol to create a fireball and are filming it to capture their reactions on film.

Unfortunately, it has gone horribly wrong for a number of children, some of whom have landed in the hospital.

This particular incident occurred in August 2023, but the 12-year-old boy's mother just recently sat down with The Sun to raise awareness and attempt to warn others about the dangers of the 'Fireball Challenge'.

What was intended to be an innocent video for TikTok turned into a nightmare as 12-year-old Corey Roper accidentally set himself on fire. Corey's mother, Tiffany Roper, said she woke up to a scream around 5:00 a.m., prompting her to rush to her son's room, where she found her boy in flames.

“I jumped out of bed in a panic and raced into his bedroom," she told The Sun in a new interview. "He was on fire. His polyester T-shirt had completely melted onto his skin.”

The family called 911 and were able to spray Corey down with cold water from the hose in the kitchen until paramedics arrived.

I had no idea what had happened until police and paramedics arrived," she recalled. "They told me Corey had held a bottle of rubbing alcohol in one hand and lit it with the other, not realizing how quickly rubbing alcohol burns off.

“Corey was in extreme shock but [he] kept saying: ‘I saw it in a video’.”

He was rushed to the Banner Diamond Children’s Medical Center in Arizona where he was admitted to the ICU and placed in an induced coma. Corey was also put on a ventilator to help him breathe.

Doctors confirmed the 12-year-old boy had suffered from second and third-degree burns to 45-50% of his body.

“I looked up the video on my phone and saw hundreds of them about children who had attempted similar stunts as part of a TikTok challenge, many of which had gone wrong," she told the outlet, "I was beside myself.”

According to The Sun, Corey underwent four debridement surgeries, which is a procedure where surgeons scrub and clean the wounds. He also endured five skin graft surgeries, which is when doctors took the skin from his thigh and placed it onto his burns.

Corey was in a coma for two weeks, but he luckily survived. He had to relearn how to walk. After one month in the hospital, he was discharged.

The damage was so severe that Corey does not remember the incident or the challenge.

“I’ve spoken to him about the challenge, but he can’t remember what happened," she told The Sun.

Following the tragedy, Corey's mom has a word of advice for other parents. "I want other parents to talk to their kids about the dangers of challenges like these and for people to report anything online that they think is inappropriate."

“Because of social media, my baby is scarred for life," she added, “I’m just so grateful that he’s alive.”

“I've always tried so hard to protect my kids from any danger, and I still wonder what I could have done to avoid Corey getting hurt that night," Ms. Roper told The Sun, “Challenges like these are targeted at children because they don’t understand the repercussions."

“We have to protect them. One child being hurt is one too many," she added.

More stories like Corey's continue to surface. In fact, since 2021 when the social media trend first began, numerous kids from across the country have been seriously burned by this challenge.

12-year-old Nick Howell had a message for other kids after he suffered burns to 35% of his body after attempting the 'Fireball Challenge'.

"It won't go well," the 12-year-old told PEOPLE at the time of his injuries. "I want to tell people not to be a follower, but to be a leader."

In 2020, Nick and some friends were talking about TikTok videos and the 'Fire Challenge'. Nick said he spotted a lighter and decided to try it out. "I poured a little bit of rubbing alcohol on the [concrete] floor, lit it and put it out," he recalled. "But I guess the bottle had caught on fire, and it exploded. I started burning."

He soon realized his entire body had emerged in flames and he ran to the front yard to get his parents. His father and two uncles were able to pat him down and spray him with the garden hose, but he still spent almost six months in and out of the hospital and had 50 surgeries.