The fire challenge is an internet challenge which involves applying flammable liquids to one's body and then setting the liquids aflame, while being video recorded; the footage is then posted to social media sites. [1] [2] [3] [4] Firefighters, police officers and media sources have criticized and spoken out against the activity, hoping to dissuade individuals from trying it due to its harmful nature. [5] [6] [7]
The first known fire challenge video was uploaded in 2012. [8] The activity gained mainstream media attention in 2014.
Immediate first through second degree burns are the direct results of undergoing the activity. [7] [9] One teenager from Kentucky who participated in the challenge described the subsequent pain as "unbearable." [10] [11]
In addition to the obvious dangers, many participants run away in panic without dousing the flames first, allowing the oxygen to cause the flames to spread more easily. Another immediate danger is the participants inhaling superheated air, which can then damage the lungs. [12]
Writing for The Huffington Post , in response to viewing a video of a youth attempting the challenge, Andres Jauregui stated on the behalf of his coworkers:
"We're basically speechless. We hang out with guys who eat lightbulbs, and we're still shocked. Granted, those guys are trained professional performers, where as [ sic ] this appears to be a misguided youth. The scariest part is that he's not the only person who is doing this." [9]
Writing for the Washington Post , Caitlin Dewey noted "YouTube has known its fair share of dangerous, destructive and ill-advised trends, but even by those standards, the 'fire challenge' hits new lows." [13]
Multiple local and state fire departments have spoken out against the fire challenge, often citing the significant harm and the unpredictability of fire for their reasoning. [14] [15] [16]
Firefighting is a profession aimed at controlling and extinguishing fire. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter or fireman. Firefighters typically undergo a high degree of technical training. This involves structural firefighting and wildland firefighting. Specialized training includes aircraft firefighting, shipboard firefighting, aerial firefighting, maritime firefighting, and proximity firefighting.
A rainbow party is a supposed group sex event featured in an urban legend spread since the early 2000s. A variant of other sex party urban myths, the stories claim that at these events, allegedly increasingly popular among adolescents, people wearing various shades of lipstick take turns fellating others in sequence, leaving multiple colors on their penises.
A flash fire is a sudden, intense fire caused by ignition of a mixture of air and a dispersed flammable substance such as a solid, flammable or combustible liquid, or a flammable gas. It is characterized by high temperature, short duration, and a rapidly moving flame front.
Teen Mania International was an Evangelical Christian youth organization located in Dallas, Texas. Teen Mania focused primarily on four key programs, with a few additional smaller endeavors. It was one of the largest Christian youth organizations in the U.S.
Caitlin "Caite"Upton is an American actress, model, real estate agent, and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss South Carolina Teen USA 2007 and represented South Carolina at Miss Teen USA 2007 where she placed third runner-up.
Omegle was a free, web-based online chat service that allowed users to socialize with others without the need to register. The service randomly paired users in one-on-one chat sessions where they could chat anonymously. It operated from 2009 to 2023.
The cinnamon challenge is a food challenge that gained viral recognition on social media in the early 2010s. Participants generally film themselves attempting to eat a spoonful of ground cinnamon in under 60 seconds without drinking anything. The challenge is difficult and carries substantial health risks because the cinnamon can coat and dry the mouth and throat, possibly resulting in coughing, gagging, vomiting, and inhalation of cinnamon, which can in turn lead to throat irritation, breathing difficulties, and risk of pneumonia or a collapsed lung.
The 2012 Colorado wildfires were an unusually devastating series of Colorado wildfires, including several separate fires that occurred throughout June, July, and August 2012. At least 34,500 residents were evacuated in June.
The Slender Man is a fictional supernatural character that originated as a creepypasta Internet meme created by Something Awful forum user Eric Knudsen in 2009. He is depicted as a thin, unnaturally tall humanoid with a featureless white head and face, wearing a black suit.
The fifth season of the American neo-Western television series Justified premiered on January 7, 2014, on FX, and concluded on April 8, 2014, consisting of 13 episodes. The series was developed by Graham Yost based on Elmore Leonard's novels Pronto and Riding the Rap and his short story "Fire in the Hole". Its main character is Raylan Givens, a deputy U.S. Marshal. Timothy Olyphant portrays Givens, a tough federal lawman, enforcing his own brand of justice in his Kentucky hometown. The series is set in the city of Lexington, Kentucky, and the hill country of eastern Kentucky, specifically in and around Harlan. The fifth season was released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1 on December 2, 2014.
Cocos Fire, originally known as the Twin Oaks Fire, was a wildfire that ignited on May 14, 2014 in San Marcos, California, in the hills south of California State University, San Marcos. The Cocos Fire quickly spread into western Escondido. The fire destroyed more than 40 buildings, including a dozen single-family homes. The Harmony Grove Spiritualist Association, a 13-acre spiritualist retreat founded in 1896, was particularly hard hit; most of the buildings and residences on the property were destroyed, and the association's president said, "We're pretty much wiped out." Property damage from the fire is estimated at more than $5.7 million. Three minor injuries have been reported. The Cocos Fire was the last of the May 2014 wildfires in San Diego County to be extinguished, with full containment on May 22, 2014.
Cloud-chasing is the activity of blowing large clouds of vapor using an electronic cigarette. Using the devices for "cloud-chasing" began in the West Coast of the US. The exact origins of the activity are unclear, but most competitive e-cigarette users say that it started around 2012. Competitive vaping is increasing in popularity internationally, spreading from the US and Canada to Indonesia. Cloud-chasing is a recreational activity and a hobby.
The Charlie Charlie challenge is a divination game in which the putative answer to a yes–no question is found by waiting for a balanced pencil to point towards the word "Yes" or "No" written on a sheet of paper. As with a Magic 8-Ball, most players, typically teenagers, do not sincerely believe in the power of the mechanism. The game is a modern incarnation of an older Spanish game called Juego de la Lapicera. It was popularized in the English-speaking world in 2015, partly through the hashtag #CharlieCharlieChallenge. On 29 April 2015, an alarmist tabloid television newscast about the game being played in Hato Mayor Province of the Dominican Republic was uploaded to YouTube, and the unintentional humor in the report led to the game trending on Twitter, crossing the language barrier to be played around the world.
A bikini bridge is defined as "when bikini bottoms are suspended between the two hip bones, causing a space between the bikini and the lower abdomen". It originated in the United States on January 5, 2014, created by users of /b/ section on the imageboard 4chan as a parody of popular thinspiration memes. According to a posting on the website, users intended to spread content across social media regarding bikini bridges. It was reported on by U.S. television program Today on January 7. Several commentators critiqued the posts for displaying insensitivity or being "dangerous" for women with an eating disorder.
Like most detergent products, Tide Pods, a laundry detergent pod sold by Procter & Gamble (P&G) since 2012, can be deadly if ingested. Media reports have discussed how children and those with dementia could mistake laundry pods for candy and endanger their health or life by consuming them, and they were named an emerging health risk by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2012. Between 2012 and 2013, poison control centers reported over 7,000 cases of young children eating laundry pods, and ingestion of laundry pods produced by P&G had resulted in six deaths by 2017. In response to the dangers, P&G changed Tide Pod containers to an opaque design, introduced warning labels, and added a bitter-tasting chemical to the pod contents.
The Lake Christine Fire was a wildfire that burned near Basalt and Carbondale, in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The fire was the result of an act of criminal arson. It started on July 3, 2018, and was later downgraded to a Burned Area Response on September 4, 2018, after 13 weeks. It destroyed a total of 12,588 wilderness acres on Basalt Mountain and seriously injured a volunteer firefighter. The Lake Christine fire also destroyed the home of a long-time volunteer firefighter who was battling the blaze in response to his call of duty on the evening of July 4. Several other structures were also destroyed.
The "Momo Challenge" was a hoax and an internet urban legend that was rumoured to spread through social media and other outlets. It was reported that children and adolescents were being harassed by a user named Momo to perform a series of dangerous tasks including violent attacks, self-harm, harming others, and suicide. Despite claims that the phenomenon had reached worldwide proportions in July 2018, the number of actual complaints was relatively small and many law enforcement agencies have not been able to confirm that anyone was harmed as a direct result of it. Moreover, the Momo Challenge sparked global panic and prompted urgent warnings from authorities and child safety advocates. Reports of children encountering Momo's disturbing messages circulated widely, causing heightened fears among parents and caregivers.
The Benadryl challenge is an internet challenge that emerged in 2020, revolving around the deliberate consumption, excessive use and overdose of the antihistamine medicine diphenhydramine, which acts as a deliriant in high doses. The challenge, which reportedly spread via the social media platform TikTok, instructs participants to film themselves consuming large doses of Benadryl and documenting the effect of tripping or hallucinating.
"Bye-Bye, Junior High" is the sixteenth episode of the third and final season of Canadian teen drama television series Degrassi Junior High. It originally aired on CBC Television in Canada on February 27, 1989. It was written by Yan Moore and directed by Kit Hood. The episode takes place at the end of the school year as graduation approaches; despite the fallout from the death of his parents at the beginning of the season, Derek "Wheels" Wheeler manages to pass, but Christine "Spike" Nelson, who is raising her daughter Emma, must make up for poor grades over the holidays, something which she does not react well to. At the graduation dance, a fault in the boiler room causes a fire to spread throughout the school, razing it to the ground.