Squishy toys are all the rage, but they are also the subject of a dangerous social media challenge — and fire officials on Long Island are sounding the alarm.
“Bad idea, very dangerous,” warned Nassau County Chief Fire Marshal Michael Uttaro. “You’re going to get hurt. Don’t do it.”
Uttaro issuing the warning after two sisters, a 4-year-old and an 8-year-old from Floral Park, burned themselves on July 2. Uttaro says they placed a squishy toy in the microwave.
“When they removed it from the microwave, it exploded, and oozed its gel on them,” said Uttaro. “The 4-year-old suffered burns to legs, her arms and on her face.”
Uttaro described them as second- to third-degree burns, where the skin often blisters upon contact. The sisters were rushed to Nassau University Medical Center where they were treated in the burn unit.
Officials are raising awareness because of how popular the toys are. Most stores run out of the toys hours after placing them on the shelf and there are often lines outside stores to purchase them.
At Joanne’s Variety in Williston Park, owner Joanne Surleti has to limit certain squishy toys, one to a family because of how popular the toys are.
“They just keep coming for them every day,” explained Surleti. “They want to see what’s new. Every day they call, ‘Did you get anything knew?'”
The videos online show people putting the toys in the microwave. In some cases, they are doing it to make the toy more malleable and easier to squeeze.
But Uttaro says there is a real danger here because the gel inside the toy can get extremely hot. And unlike water, it doesn’t just fall from the surface — it can stay on the skin, exacerbating the burn.
“It’s not good, I’ve seen the videos online,” said parent Heather Rowan, from Mineola. “My daughter had one yesterday that opened and I made her throw it away. It was oozing.”
Kids in other parts of the country have also reported the same. A 9-year-old boy in Illinois burned his face when a heated toy burst.
The sisters from Floral Park are expected to recover, but the fire marshal wants to prevent future incidents. A day after he issued a warning, he learned about other kids being burned in Massapequa and in southern Nassau County.
“This can cause burns to a face, things that could disfigure a kid. Then they have to go through life scarred from, a social media challenge that went wrong and having to live with that,” said Uttaro
Some of the toys come with warnings, letting people know that it can be dangerous to play with the toy if it gets too hot and to never microwave it or heat it up otherwise.
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