Gypsy skirts spark fire fears

GYPSY skirts have sparked a frightening new trend in burns’ injuries, a medical expert warned yesterday.

Since last July, 16 people — including seven children — were treated at two specialist hospitals in Dublin for burns sustained after their skirts caught fire and disintegrated within seconds.

Consultant plastic surgeon Dr Catriona Lawlor said the number of skirt injuries had shot up ever since the long, flimsy bohemian, skirts became fashionable.

Dr Lawlor is attached to the Burns Unit at St James’s Hospital in Dublin. She said her hospital alone treated a total of 11 patients with skirt injuries between January 2003 and December 2005.

But, she said, since the beginning of January the unit had treated seven patients with ‘skirt injuries’ and three of them were pregnant.

She pointed out that the seven children treated at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin were aged between five and nine years.

One girl suffered burns to 60% of her body.

“These skirts have a fair amount of material and tend to be long,” said Dr Lawlor.

“They more easily contact any exposed flame or heat source as they tend to swing away from the wearer and the width of the skirt makes it difficult for the wearer to recognise how near they are to the heat source.”

And, she said, while gypsy skirts were “out of fashion” this season, they remained available in the stores.

Asked how the skirts had caught fire, Dr Lawlor said exposed flames were largely responsible.

“There was one person, at a party where there were candles on the mantelpiece, and her skirt just got too close to the mantelpiece,” she said.