TERRACE, B.C. — A 13-year-old girl has died after catching fire at a backyard fire pit in British Columbia.
Lynn Peerless says she looked out her backyard window in Terrace last week when she heard her daughter Gracescreaming and saw her hair on fire.
She says she told her daughter to stop, drop and roll, while her son grabbed a hose to put out the flames.
Peerless says doctors told her that Grace had a 95 per cent chance of living when she was transported to B.C. Children's Hospital in Vancouver for treatment.
She says the B.C. Coroners Service is investigating the exact cause of death, but she was told Grace had mostly second-degree burns to between 25 and 30 per cent of her body and died on Saturday when medical complications put her into cardiac arrest.
Peerless says she's at a loss to understand what sparked the fire because Grace was alone, but believes hair spray may have acted as an accelerant when an ember landed on Grace's clothing or hair.