A 22-year-old fire breather burned her face and torso during a party in Royal Oak, according to witnesses.
Beth Guzdek of Sterling Heights put flammable liquid in her mouth, held a lit baton in front of her and she breathed flames, said Keith Howarth, one of about 60 guests at the party. Howarth is her boss at Noir Leather. During the second fire blow, the flames leapt back at her.
The incident occurred at 11 p.m. Saturday in the driveway of a home in the 700 block of South Rembrandt.
Guzdek, who does data entry, sales and modeling for the store in Royal Oak, did not comment.
"She instantly was in flames," Howarth said. "She immediately started to scream and started running haphazardly in the driveway looking for someplace to extinguish herself."
One guest threw a T-shirt over her face to douse the flames, while three others tossed their drinks on her, Howarth recalled. Another attendee, who was a doctor, put a burn salve on her.
"This certainly was one of the most unique runs I've been on," said Scott Gardner, a Royal Oak firefighter/paramedic. "Don't play with fire. That's the short of it. People have got to understand that when they do high-risk things, bad things will probably happen."
As firefighters rushed her to Beaumont Hospital, they administered oxygen, started an IV and applied sterile burn sheets soaked in saline water to cool the wounds.
Guzdek was transferred to Detroit Receiving Hospital, where she stayed until Monday and must return to daily for two weeks for bandage changes, Howarth said. She had first-degree burns to her face and second-degree burns to her upper chest and left hand, he said.
Guests at the party collected $380 for Guzdek.
"She told me she's swearing off fire," Howarth said. "She's going to throw those batons away and that flammable liquid."
