Terrifying TikTok Trend Sets 12-Year-Old Texas Child on Fire

A TikTok trend nearly turned deadly in Coleman, Texas, after a 12-year-old boy was left covered in burns while trying a viral experiment with his older brother.

Caden Ballard said he and his brother were at home scrolling TikTok when they came across a video they decided to copy. The experiment called for pouring rubbing alcohol into a bottle, lighting it, and watching flames shoot upward.

“It looked like the fire had gone out,” Caden explained. “So, my brother said, ‘Here, throw it away.’ I grabbed it to throw it in the trash can, and my shirt was on fire.”

A Texas boy was left with third-degree burns.

Isopropyl alcohol can produce an invisible flame, which is what left Caden with second and third-degree burns across his body.

His mother, Christina, described the terrifying moment she arrived to find her son covered in burns. “When I walked up to the porch, he was just face, chest, arms, stomach covered in burns. It looked like his skin had been melted away,” she recalled.

Older brother takes heroic action.

Caden’s older brother is credited with saving him by pulling off his burning shirt and telling him to stop, drop, and roll. “I don’t know how you were brave enough to reach into the flames and pull the shirt off of your brother,” Christina said. “But I thank God every single day that you were brave enough to do that.”

Now, Christina is warning other parents that what happened to her son could happen to anyone. “Just tell your kids because you never know when something they see online could end up putting them in the hospital or worse,” she said.