Boy, 6, suffers serious burns after being hit with fireball

BRIDGEPORT — Aaron Krankall planned on taking his 6-year-old son Dominick fishing Sunday evening.

Instead, the kindergartner was rushed to the hospital after Krankall said another child soaked a tennis ball in gasoline, lit it, and threw it in Dominick's face.

He said Dominick had gone to the backyard of their home on the city's upper East Side after waving goodbye to a family friend.

“The next thing we hear is him screaming ‘Help, mommy, help, they lit me on fire!'” Krankall said during an interview Wednesday. “That was just so terrifying to hear.”

Krankall said he rushed out of the house, not sure where the screaming was coming from. Meanwhile, Dominick had stopped, dropped and rolled to put out most of the flames — but still suffered devastating injuries, including second- and third-degree burns on his face and legs.

“By the time I got to the back, he was already up into the kitchen,” Krankall said. “His pants (were) still smoking — one side of his leg was still smoking. His face, the skin was already peeling off.”

He rushed the boy to the bathtub as Dominick's mother called 911.

Bridgeport police said first responders were called around 3:50 p.m. Sunday after a report of a child who had been burned.

Police said up to four children were unattended and seen “with gasoline and lighting objects on fire,” with one child transported to the Bridgeport Hospital burn unit by paramedics.

Krankall said Dominick and his 7-year-old brother had been playing outside with two other boys.

He said Dominick's mother had told them to put the gasoline away before calling Dominick into the home. She then turned her attention to the couple's 3-year-old son, and heard Dominick screaming soon after.

“I wouldn't wish this upon anybody, especially my little Dominick,” Krankall said. “He's just the nicest kid.”

Police said the incident remains under investigation and have not provided any further information, including whether any charges could be pending.

A gofundme page to help with Dominick's medical expenses — and finding the family a new place to live — had raised more than $83,000 by Wednesday afternoon. Krankall said they hope to be out of the home by the end of the week.

Seeing his boy's injuries has “been really tough,” Krankall said.

“His eyes have been so swollen he hasn't really been able to see,” he said. “They just started opening yesterday a little bit.”

One of the pictures shared on the gofundme page shows the boy with bandages covering nearly his entire face.

“He's improving, but it's still going to be such a long road,” Krankall said. “Months and months. He's not going to have a summer.”

He said his son's physical prognosis is positive.

“They feel very strongly that with everything they're doing and the way that everything's looking, he'll make pretty much a full recovery, maybe some discoloration in the face, maybe some scars that won't go away,” Krankall said. “But what I'm more worried about is the scar on his heart and in his head.

“We didn't want him to look at his face yet but he kind of snuck a glimpse in the mirror,” Krankall said while choking up. “That was really hard, to hear him say, ‘Why do I look like this? Am I going to look like this forever?'”

Krankall said he and Dominick's mother have been spending as much time with him at the hospital as possible, with family and friends stepping up to take care of their younger son.

With Dominick out of school, a teacher from his school has volunteered to come to the home for one-on-one lessons. He said the response to the fundraiser has been heartening, as have other forms of outreach since news spread of the incident.

“We've had people bring dinners,” Krankall said. “It's amazing how the community looked out and reached out to us. That's been making me tear up too, to see how everyone cares.”