MOON TWP. - The draw of fame - even of the slightly sketchy Internet variety - can be strong.
The promise of a payoff - in this case, hopes of a boatload of hits for a YouTube video - can lead rational people to make questionable decisions, such as, say, setting your backyard on fire.
That's what happened when two 18-year-old Moon Township residents soaked the backyard of one of them - along with his shoes and socks - with gasoline and set it aflame early Saturday.
Moon police said Kory Brinza of 108 Bertley Ridge Drive and Joshua Morrow of 264 Moon-Clinton Road hatched a plan around 4 a.m. Saturday to set the fire around Brinza, while Morrow filmed the event on Brinza's new cell phone. They then planned to upload the video to YouTube.com, an Internet site that hosts millions of homemade clips of every variety.
That's what was supposed to happen; what actually occurred, Brinza said, was this: Once Brinza soaked much of his yard with gasoline, Morrow lit a match and a fire that engulfed much of the yard - not to mention Brinza's lower legs - roared to life.
"I ripped off my shoes, because they were on fire, and I had to rip my socks off, too," Brinza said. "We were just trying to put out the fire."
Brinza said in his panic, he accidentally kicked over a nearly full can of mixed gasoline and oil, compounding the problem.
"I don't really remember everything - it was pretty traumatic," Brinza said. "I know I was yelling to my mom to tell the fire department that we got it out."
Brinza said he didn't realize how seriously he was burned; his mother, Peggylee Brinza, 56, summoned emergency workers anyway, and Kory Brinza was taken by ambulance to Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh for treatment of what turned out to be second-degree burns on his feet and ankles.
He was in the hospital for only a couple of hours, but Brinza said he has a long road ahead. The bandages covering the burns must be changed once daily, and the prescribed painkillers he received only dull the pain.
"I've never felt anything like this," he said. "It's excruciating."
Brinza attributed the fire to a desire to check out the capabilities of his new camera phone - and boredom. He said he doesn't really know why he thought setting the fire would be a good idea, although he said no drinking or drug use was involved.
"But I know it was the dumbest thing I've ever done," he said. "I should know better, but for whatever reason, I wanted to do it anyway."
Police, who went to investigate the incident, said the smell of gasoline lingered heavily in the air, and they asked the fire department to come to the location and hose down the yard as a precaution.
"You should not play around with gasoline or any flammable liquids on the body," Moon Fire Chief Charles Belgie Jr. said as a warning to other young moviemakers on Monday.
Brinza said that message is clear.
"If anything good comes of this, I hope it's that no one else tries to do something similar," he said. "It might take months for my legs to heal, and I'll think about this mistake every day."
©Beaver County Times Allegheny Times 2007
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