This Gives New Meaning to the "Hot Potato" Game

Remember when you were a kid, you played the "Hot Potato" game? You know remember that game, right? We used to use rocks as the "hot potato" and toss them back and forth. Other than a minor bruise here or there from someone throwing the rocks a little too hard, it was a harmless game we played all the time.

Who would have thought that rocks could end up setting you on fire?

That's exactly what happened to one woman in California after her children collected a handful of rocks from a beach and she put them in her pocket. It turns out that the rocks were somehow coated with the chemical form of phosphorous, which ignites when exposed to air. Her shorts caught fire when the chemical reaction took place and she suffered third degree burns on her legs. She and her husband also suffered second degree burns on their hands after trying to get the rocks out of her pocket.

Crazy things happen all the time, and this is one of the craziest. I can't tell you how many times I've gathered rocks, sticks, and leaves from different areas of my home after the kids have collected them because they were "pretty." Rebecca went through a rock-collecting stage for about 6 months when she was younger that filled several of my Tupperware containers. I was forever finding rocks all over the house during that time. Aside from occasionally stepping on a small rock that had buried itself in the carpet, sending me into a fit of cursing, I would have never thought they could possibly burn my house down, or me, for that matter!

No one has claimed fault for the phosphorus covered rocks as of yet. With a military base, an island used for live shooting training, and a nuclear power plant nearby, it's anybody's guess as to how the phosphorous got on the rocks. We'll probably never know, but in the meantime, this poor woman is still hospitalized.