A SCHOOLIE preparing to study biomedical science was given the first lesson in anatomy yesterday morning when his mate lit his buttocks on fire with a lighter and aerosol can.

The 17-year-old from Cairns, known as Steve, had been drinking with friends when one of them began singeing people’s hair and eventually turned to Steve’s buttocks hair.

However in Steve’s drunk state he forgot to mention that he had remnants of spilt alcohol on his bum which quickly spread the impact of the “blaze”.



WILD: A day in the life of a schoolie

After letting out a scream and as the pain and redness began to form, Steve and his mates visited a nearby medical tent where they instructed him to head to the hospital and put water on the affected area.

He sat in a fountain until an ambulance arrived to take him to Gold Coast University Hospital where he was treated for a “palm-sized superficial burn” to his buttocks which was described on the medical report to be caused by an “alleged assault by friends”.

Recovering back in Surfers Paradise yesterday, Steve said he wasn’t normally a reckless person but had been too busy having a good time to recognise the impact of the idea.

media_camera ‘Steve’ says he’ll probably have to tell his parents about his injuries when he gives the medical report to his GP.

“We were just really drunk and it was a bad decision,” he said.

“(My parents don’t know about it) I will probably have to tell them when I have to hand the medical report to my GP.”

Steve said he never imagined he would return home with such injuries.

“I told myself that I kind of had a little bit of a bucket list when I came here and one of them was to get on the news so that sort of happened,” he said.

Steve isn’t the only Schoolie to have a reckless moment during their Gold Coast celebrations.

In 2004 two Schoolies flooded a high rise by turning on fire hydrants and in 2012 a Schoolie decided to sleep off a hangover by climbing out on an 11th floor ledge.

It wasn’t the first aerosol incident the Queensland Ambulance Service has been called to, with another gentleman found trying to shave his legs by lighting an aerosol can on fire and burning the leg hair.

Queensland Ambulance Service Gold Coast events co-ordinator Justin Payne said it was the first time he had been called to the unusual incidents.

“The message to come out of it would be that aerosol cans and lighters don’t mix,” he said.

“I have been involved in the last couple of Schoolies and I haven’t seen this before.”

Originally published as ‘Haven’t seen this at Schoolies before’