Rhode Island teen suffers serious burns in TikTok 'fire challenge'

Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News on Sep 11, 2025

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A Rhode Island teenager was hospitalized with serious burns after setting himself on fire for an online TikTok challenge, authorities said Wednesday.

The 18-year-old man set himself on fire before jumping into Slatersville Reservoir in North Smithfield, local NBC affiliate WJAR reported. Video captured the teen leaping from a railroad trestle above the reservoir while engulfed in flames.

Cops said he did it for social media, participating in the “fire challenge” in which people put lighter fluid on themselves and light it before putting out the flames by jumping into a body of water or using a shower.

However, the “fire challenge” is not a new phenomenon. Teenagers have been lighting themselves on fire for social media views for more than a decade, and local news reports on the “fire challenge” date back to at least 2014.

The 18-year-old man in Rhode Island suffered second- and third-degree burns, police said. He has not been publicly identified. A 16-year-old at the scene with him was interviewed by police but later released.

The teen faced additional danger from the body of water he was jumping into. Multiple teens have drowned leaping from the same railroad trestle into Slatersville Reservoir, with an 18-year-old dying in 2022 and a 19-year-old dying in 2016.

“Made arrests many times,” Tim Lafferty, now the North Smithfield police chief, told local CBS affiliate WPRI back in 2016. “But it seems that through social media, different outlets, that kids just continue to come here and jump off this trestle.”