Officials: Child burned attempting Tiktok craze

A child in East Haven was severely burned while attempting a social media challenge that calls for igniting a bottle of alcohol, fire officials said Wednesday.

The victim was being treated at the Bridgeport Hospital Burn Center, Fire Chief Matt Marcarelli said.

Firefighters responded Tuesday at about 8:30 p.m. to a call about a burn victim and learned the child had been trying the latest Tiktok craze called “the whoosh bottle experiment,” Marcarelli said. Igniting alcohol inside a bottle is meant to create a “whoosh” sound, he said.

Warning that fire is not a toy, the chief said, “This could easily have led to a fatality as well as a major fire in the house. Alcohol is a volatile flammable liquid and can act as an accelerant.”

Fire Marshal Charles Miller investigated the incident and will be reaching out to local public schools to make sure kids are aware of the potential dangers. Miller urged parents to “take a few minutes to talk to your

children about the dangers of playing with ignitable liquids and matches and monitor what they are watching. This experiment

when done incorrectly can cause severe burns that can permanently scar an individual.”

A representative of Tiktok could not be reached immediately.

“We have already reached out to Tiktok demanding answers as to how this dangerous ‘Whoosh Bottle Experiment’ was not removed from their platform,” Attorney General William Tong said.

“We’ve been assured by Tiktok leaders in the past that they have systems in place to remove this harmful content,” Tong said, “but clearly those systems are not working. A Connecticut child is now seriously injured because of the dangerous content on their platform. We expect to meet with Tiktok leaders, Connecticut parents and educators in early 2022 and urge them to step up and do better to protect our children.”