A teenage boy suffered major burns Sunday night after playing with fireworks inside a Barton Hills residence. The Barton County Sheriff’s Office reports the fire at 646 North Homestead started around 10:20 p.m. when Brennen Donovan, 13, and a 15-year-old boy were playing with fireworks and caught a mattress on fire.
Donovan was taken to Clara Barton Hospital in Hoisington and transferred to Via Christi’s St. Francis Hospital in Wichita with burns to his right hand, arm and face.
Hoisington Fire Department responded. A bed mattress was on fire in the basement but was quickly extinguished and taken outside.
On Wednesday afternoon a Via Christi spokesman said Donovan has been released from the hospital.
Other fire calls in the county and Great Bend over the extended holiday weekend were less serious.
Claflin Fire Department was dispatched to a camper fire at 608 Park St. at 7:19 p.m. Saturday. Electrical problems were suspected.
Great Bend Fire Department extinguished a fire in a trash receptacle outside 2320 McCormick St. at 2:53 p.m. Tuesday. Chief Mike Napolitano said the occupant had disposed of some charcoal and later disposed of Christmas wrappings, which were ignited by the charcoal.
Great Bend firefighters also found a high level of carbon monoxide in an apartment at Cedar Park Place at 1:51 p.m. on Christmas Day, after a resident reported the CO-detector was going off. “It was just in one apartment,” Napolitano said. Someone from the gas company arrived and shut off the furnace.
A carbon monoxide detector was activated Monday evening at 436 Dogwood St., but firefighters detected no CO in the residence.