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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

A long-awaited homecoming


Theresa Ashmore with her 5-year-old son Brian at Seattle Children's Hospital prior to his release Friday. Brian was to return to the family's Spokane home for the first time since being burned in June. 
 (Richard Roesler/ / The Spokesman-Review)
Richard Roesler Staff writer

SEATTLE – At Seattle’s Children’s Hospital, murals of toys, sheep and clouds crowd the walls, but there’s no hiding the surgery gurneys or portable X-ray equipment parked in the halls.

Since June, hospital rooms have been home for Brian Ashmore, one of two Spokane 4-year-olds badly burned when they poured gasoline on a slide and a spark of static electricity ignited it.

“It’s a miracle that either one of those boys are alive,” said Shannon Ward, his grandmother. “Brian ran into my house on fire. His clothes were literally dripping fire.”

On Friday, Brian, now 5, headed home. The other burned boy, Alexander Brown, went home weeks ago. Repeated efforts to reach Brown’s family were unsuccessful.

On June 4, the two boys were playing on a plastic slide in a neighbor’s back yard in north Spokane. The lawn had been mowed recently.

The boys apparently got the idea of making the slide more slippery. They found the gas can for the lawn mower and doused the slide with it, then began sliding.

Fire investigators later concluded that static – probably from the boys’ clothing rubbing against the slide – triggered the fire. The boys burst into flames. One ran to Ward’s home next door, where she smothered the flames with her hands. The burning boy charred part of the porch and melted part of the carpet inside.

Chuck Rinck, a neighbor, heard Ward yelling for help. Seeing the other boy still on fire, Rinck stripped off his shirt and snuffed the flames. He got some of the boy’s clothes off and started to administer first aid.

“I’ve never seen somebody burned that bad,” he said later that day. Both boys suffered third-degree burns over 50 percent of their bodies, but their faces and hands were spared.

The boys were rushed to the hospital, and then taken to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center for burn treatment. Medical staff had to scrub away the burned skin and melted clothing. “I couldn’t stand there and watch them do it,” said Brian’s mother, Theresa Ashmore. “He (Brian) was screaming and crying.”

Over the next six months, Brian would face a dozen skin grafts at Harborview, followed by physical rehabilitation at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital. He was on a breathing machine for nearly three months.

In between the skin graft surgeries at Harborview, the two boys would go into each others’ rooms to watch movies or play together. Doctors covered their burns with artificial skin, then removed healthy skin from their feet, scalp and abdomens, attaching it to the artificial layer. Hospital staffers deluged the two patients with presents – toys, stuffed animals, cars.

The back of Brian’s neck is a bright pink scar. His body was so scarred, in fact, that he’s stretching and doing exercises to restore his range of motion and ability to walk. Next summer, he’ll face more skin-graft surgeries. With his sensitive skin, he can’t be out in the sun for long. It’s hard to climb up stairs, and he’s reluctant to use his badly burned left arm.

“They tell me that he won’t have a lot of scarring, although he has a lot now,” said Ashmore. “He’ll be fine. He’s just going to have a lot of physical therapy.”

She’s been living in Seattle for the past six months, staying at a Ronald McDonald house for family members. Even though Brian’s covered by state medical insurance, his bills exceed $50,000, she said.

He rarely talks about the fire, although he sometimes has nightmares about it. Alex’s mother, Tara Brown, said in August her son also wouldn’t talk about the fire.

Except for a brief trip to a Seahawks game last week, he has been stuck largely in his hospital room. Even this week, he could not shake hands or touch visitors, and had to wear a protective gown to leave the room. He has spent his days watching movies on the hospital TV, or playing with his Spiderman figures or his Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. He misses his cat, Tippy.

In Spokane, friends and strangers held benefits for both boys.

There was no special celebration slated for Brian’s return home late Friday night, his mother said. He’ll just be happy to be home.

“Who do you want to see?” she asked Brian.

“Alex,” he said.