“He’s Blind Now”: 30 Times People Played With Fire And Got Burned

This thread reminds me of a funny story of my brother's.

So when we were kids, our step father was really strict and to be honest, a bit of a jerk. He had my brother digging post holes all day when he was about 10 or 12, and my brother's hands began to blister and bleed. My brother asked my stepfather for a pair of gloves to protect his hands and my step-dad derided and ridiculed him. "Oh what? You want a pair of b***h mittens?"

Fast forward several years and my brother is a grown man and a foreman for a construction crew. As a favor to my stepfather, my brother gets him a job on his crew. One day, they were digging holes or something and my stepfather's hands began to blister and bleed. My step-dad asked my brother for a pair of gloves to protect his hands. "Oh what?", my brother replied. "You want a pair of b***h mittens?"

He waited over 15 years for that moment.

Walking down the sidewalk in NYC with my wife, I saw a banana peel on the ground and was like "why do they always show people slipping on these? How slippery can they be?" I then proceeded to put all my weight on it, and totally did the legs flying up in the air landing on my butt thing like you see in cartoons. I look up and my wife was rolling her eyes to the point that I think she was seriously wondering how she married me.

When I was in middle school my parents used to buy granola bars to have around as quick snacks for us kids. Well one day they came home with a Costco size box of Fiber One bars. I had no clue what fiber did, all I knew was those bars were tasty and I had an insatiable appetite, so I went to town. The next day at school my stomach was absolutely k*****g me. I mean it felt like steel wool was ripping around my intestines. It was so bad I had to have the school nurse call my parents to pick me up. When my dad arrived he asked if I had eaten anything unusual, so I fessed up to mowing through Fiber One bars.

Dad: "Do you know what fiber does?"

Me: "No."

Dad: "How many did you eat?"

Me: ".... six."

Cue the absolutely maniacal laughter from my father. That was about 20 years ago and I still haven't lived that one down.

When I was a welder we had a lot of people who thought using any kind of PPE was feminine from old guys to brand new 18 year olds. One day a guy was using the squint method to do a vertical weld and managed to splash some of the molten metal into his eyes. He's blind now and due to not using the PPE provided he wasn't able to get workers compensation or sue the corporation.

When I was 13 a friend and I hopped onto a slow moving freight train for...kid reasons.

Then we took a 7 hour ride through nowhere before it slowed down again.

Mom was pissed about that phone call.

I started bullying the only kid who was geekier and smaller than me in high school for one reason, and one reason only - to impress the one girl who lived next-door to both of us.

On day one he kicked my a*s in front of the girl.

Tried c****ne and fell in love with it instantly. Suddenly I was this very social, outgoing guy who could finally drink like my bigger friends (I was about 130lbs at the time) without passing out by 9.

Once a month turned into once a week, which eventually became every day. Alcohol and c****ne. My two best friends. I became a man wh*re, and somehow managed not to get anyone pregnant or contract an STD.

What I did manage to do was ruin a marriage by sleeping with a married woman very regularly. I also lost jobs, lost friends and almost lost my life due to my addictions. I’m 5 years sober now, but some of the consequences of my actions are still hovering over my head.

C****ne IS a hell of a d**g.

My uncle gave me some M-80s. I thought it would be good idea to light them up and put them in a large Fire-Ant nest, as a way to get rid of the ants. Turns out, all it does is p**s them off and make them airborn. I ended up getting a nice hot shower of Fire-Ants. I don't recommend it.

I was a 7 YO at a kids party and we all walked down to the bodega on the corner for slushies. I finished mine and while we were all hanging at the pool, I noticed an unattended slushie another girl had. I was still thirsty and being a greedy little s**t, I put the straw to my lips for a sip.

I just didn’t realize a bee was stuck upside down in the straw, stinger first. Stinger meets lip. Swollen for days.

Greatest story of karma I’ve ever encountered.

When I was a teenager, I had a serious chip on my shoulder. One day, some guy got in my friend’s face, and I decided to intervene. Without thinking, I hit him. Back then, I was a wrestler and had the strength to match, so I completely wrecked the kid without much effort.

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder, pulling me away from him. I turned around and found myself face-to-face with his brother. As it turns out, this guy was famous for being on the Olympic wrestling team. And for some reason—probably fueled by adrenaline or stupidity—I swung on him.

What happened next humbled me instantly. He caught my arm mid-swing like it was nothing and just held it there. He looked at me with mild annoyance and tightened his grip ever so slightly. It wasn’t painful, but the sheer strength in his hand, combined with how effortlessly he restrained me, made one thing clear: if he wanted to hurt me, I wouldn’t stand a chance.

I froze, realizing how badly this could go for me. I apologized right away, saying we’d leave. He just nodded and let us walk away, like it wasn’t worth his time.

That moment stuck with me. It was a quiet, powerful lesson: sometimes, it’s better to back down, because there are people out there who could utterly wreck you if they wanted to. It’s something I’ve never forgotten.

At the tender age of 5, I thought the tweezers were the perfect shape to fit the outlet. That day I found out how much force my dad had in his leg to kick me away from where I was stuck getting cooked.

My neighbor was remodeling her attic into a game room. She had stacks of beautiful old furniture including a Tiffany-esque lamp. She asked me if i wanted it but warned me it was probably going to need to be rewired because it was from 1910 or something. I got it home, cleaned it thoroughly and plugged it in to admire the glass panels. Great, worked fine. Then I went to move it and touched the bottom while it was plugged in. (The metal base was missing a part). The resulting shock gave me a glimpse of the afterlife and I sat there stunned for about 20 seconds checking if my heart was still beating. Yes, it did need to be rewired.

Ate an entire ghost pepper on a dare. Spent the next hour crying in the bathroom with milk and yogurt. My taste buds filed for divorce that day.

Someone I knew wanted to open her marriage even though her husband didn’t want to. He said he didn’t like it but wouldn’t stop her. She couldn’t find anything more than casual hookups while he started dating an ex. He’s with the ex now now and they are getting divorced. .

Back in my highschool days, the principal decided it was a good idea to implement a bookbag size rule, with stringent size limits on both extreme ends. Now, I was the one kid who broke the upper limit with my large rolly-polly bag. I had it listed as a medical device on my IEP just to make sure I could keep it. (The reason I could do this in the first place is another adventure) But the lower end?

This is a high school. The youngest girls are 13. These girls menstruate. A lot girls carry small bags with their pads and such. Now, the teachers didn't have any issues with this, because it's not like they can hold it. What are they going to do? Well, the administration are sticklers for rules, and the bags *are* smaller than allowed.

Needless to say, a lot of girls got their pads stolen. A lot of fathers find out. A lot of them are understandably *very f*****g angry*. Three or four of them walk into the principal's office about 2 weeks after the rule was implemented. There was a very loud scuffle for about 15 minutes, bags were returned, and the rule was never enforced again. Principal had a limp for the rest of the year.

At 18, I had a *real grown-up job* and decided to splurge a bit when I got my first check. I bought a party tray of 2-dozen chocolate chip cookies from the local Safeway (if you know, you know) and decided to eat some. Some turned into 24. 

I s**t my pants on the way to work, turned around and left, s**t my pants again on the way home. S**t for two days straight.  

I can’t look at a chocolate chip cookie without feeling my b******e quiver. .

As kids my brothers and I were playing with hairspray and lighters to do the whole flame torch thing 😂. Well my mom found the supplies behind the couch one morning. She was wearing a soft robe. She wanted to show us what happened when we played with fire. She took the lighter and lit her arm on fire. However, the flame spread a lot faster than she anticipated and her whole arm caught fire and she was freaking out trying to get it out. She sure showed us what playing with fire will do.

Put my finger on a hot car cigarette lighter. I didn’t think it was hot because it wasn’t red, it was white. Btw, this was like 45 years ago.

Stuck my laptop charger to my tongue out of curiosity.

Don't do that.

I worked in a night club. Someone attacked the bouncer and was ejected with a bop on the head and a "don't f**ken come back.

The guy came back, he grabbed a lady inappropriately. Two bouncers grabbed him and took him out the back door and beat the c**p out of him and took his wallet.(they took it into the police station the next day).