time is nowish to near future, place is New York...
A young child (4 years old) who got a hold of a lighter and was left unsupervised for a few minutes manages to light her clothes on fire. She's discovered quickly, and the fire's put out, but she ends up with extensive 1st and 2nd degree burns (more 1st than 2nd) on her arms, hands, upper thighs, and torso. No third degree burns, however.
Is this a plausible level of damage? If not, in which direction is it implausible, and/or what do I need to change?
edit: due to new information, she'll have crappier parenting, so I need to reduce the severity of the situation if I don't want to cripple or kill her. (apparently the New York foster care system doesn't suck too badly, so if she's in that system she probably wouldn't be as abused and frail as I want her to be when she runs away from home at 12.)
New plausibility check is, she's burning something (ball of paper? Old clothes? Cardboard box?) essentially unsupervised. Is it plausible that she could get burned badly enough to be a Significant Event (extensive first degree burns, and a spot or 2 of second degree), without having it go further than that and genuinely require medical attention? She's not likely to have any quick intervention, though it's reasonable to have someone come by in time to keep the building from burning down.
Does exactly what she's burning matter? I'm inclined to have it be something she found in the garbage, to explain how she got it. Also, she'll be in the alley, thus reducing the burn-the-building-down potential a bit.
(I know the medical advice things say you're supposed to bring someone to a doctor if they have really extensive burns, but that's optimal-situation, not you-will-be-crippled-otherwise. Plenty of people get sunburns that bad without going to see a doctor, and with luck or moderate home medical care, they're fine, often without any real aftereffects. And Our Heroine's mother will never win mother of the year...)
