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Injured Fire Breathing Performer Speaks Out

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FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - Pyrotechnics stunt man Ricky Charles is counting his blessings.

"First of all, I'm lucky," he said as held back tears and described the horrific accident that left his face severely burned.

Thursday, Charles was performing at a pep rally in front of the Atlantic High School student body in Delray Beach when he was severely burned in an accident. The 52 year old performer has been making his living doing this type of work for 35 years and nothing like this has ever happened before.

"It is like being burned alive and the audience is watching and it happened so fast," Charles said.

In the act he spits out fluid onto a torch which creates a huge fireball. At the same time another performer jumps over the fire and makes a slam dunk in a basketball hoop.

This time, Charles said, he made a small change.

"Two months ago, I wanted to make my craft better, so I'm Googling fire breathers and what material they use. I found they use Coleman fuel, you know the camper's stuff. I said 'Okay, I'll try that'," he told reporters at a press conference from Delray Medical Center. "My mistake, my fault. I'll take full responsibility, I should've practiced. I didn't practice."

That mistake, he said, would nearly cost him his life. Unlike the charcoal lighter fluid he usually used, the new petroleum based fuel was a much stronger and more intense accelerant. He said the sprays then fell on his face and body which erupted into flame.

Charles was rushed to Delray Medical Center.

"He's got second degree burns of varying depths and they're on, as you can see, his face, his ears, the rest of his head," said his doctor Jean Ferber, MD. " It goes around the back of his head."

Ferber said he also has burns on one of his forearms and on a thigh and calf.

"He's lucky he didn't have inhalation problems," she added.

At least 20 other people were injured as well.

Charles said he in sincerely sorry for that and also sorry that the kids had to witness something so horrific.

Dr. Ferber said if he continues to improve the way that he has, he could be released from the hospital either sometime Friday or Saturday.

Charles said he's going to take a break from fire breathing, but he does need to make a living and will likely make some changes to his fire breathing act in the future.

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