A 4-year-old New Jersey boy was airlifted to a burn unit after stepping on hot coals illegally dumped on a Sandy Hook beach.
Kelsey Gilgannon told the Patch news network her son’s injuries left him unable to walk with preschool starting next week.
The 29-year-old mom said the incident occurred last week while she was at work and her mother was watching the child. The boy and his cousins were searching for sea glass on the rocky beach when he stepped on hot barbecue coals that had been dumped near some larger rocks.
“I guess the people who were there had left … and they didn’t cover [the coals] or put water on it — nothing,” she told Patch. “My son happened to step on the hot coals. He just screamed. My nephew picked him up and immediately ran him into the water. Someone else on the beach saw what happened and called 911.”
The National Park Service confirmed to the Daily News that it responded to a call about a juvenile burn victim, who was flown to Hackensack Meridian for medical attention on the afternoon of Aug. 13.
The incident occurred near the Guardian Park area of the Sandy Hook peninsula, roughly 30 miles southeast of Staten Island. Barbecuing is permitted in the park, but visitors are required to dispose of coals “in designated locations.”
Gilgannon said her son was given fentanyl and morphine to treat the pain of second-degree burns that could take a month to heal.
“My son can only crawl now,” she said. “He cannot walk.”
The single mom called it “frustrating” that picnickers would irresponsibly leave burning coals unattended on a beach.
Gilgannon and her son live in suburban Keyport, N.J., where she reportedly teaches special education. She now finds herself scrambling to accommodate the child who she says “wakes up in the middle of the night screaming in pain.”