A young man was flown to the hospital with serious injuries after he was burned during a campfire accident in the backyard of a house in Johnsburg, fire officials said.
The McHenry Township Fire Protection District responded around 10:05 p.m. Friday to the 5700 block of Dakota Ridge in Johnsburg for a report of a brush fire.
McHenry Township Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Chris Kozel said a neighbor called 911 to report something on fire in the backyard and reported no one was injured.
Firefighters arrived and found a burn victim, initially described as a teenager, and requested an ambulance to the scene.
Kozel said it was possibly a campfire in the backyard and the victim may have added an accelerant to the fire, which caused his injuries.
He suffered burns to the arms and thighs. Kozel said that anytime there are burns, especially in sensitive regions of the body, it is an automatic criterion for calling a medical helicopter.
An ambulance transported the young man, who was just over 18 years old, to the LifeNet base at Northwestern Medicine Hospital in McHenry.
The LifeNet medical helicopter crew airlifted the victim to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, which has a specialized burn center, Kozel said.
His injuries were serious but non-life-threatening and he was breathing and alert at the time of transport.
No one else was injured in the “unfortunate” accident, Kozel said.