A Summer Evening Turns Catastrophic: The Recalled Fire Pit Behind the Oceanside Burns
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On the evening of Saturday, June 28th, two children were severely burned while roasting marshmallows at a beachfront property on the 500 block of Strand North in Oceanside — less than a mile north of the Oceanside Pier. The device involved was a Flikr Fire tabletop fireplace kit, a rubbing-alcohol-fueled unit sold through home goods stores and online retailers for outdoor entertaining. Both children were airlifted to the UC San Diego burn center and remained hospitalized as of Tuesday morning. An adult relative was also injured.
The critical detail elevating this beyond a tragic accident: the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled the Flikr Fire in December 2024 — eighteen months before the Oceanside incident — after linking the product to two deaths nationally. Oceanside Fire officials issued a public safety warning urging families to immediately dispose of any recalled units.
Consumer product recalls operate on voluntary compliance; there is no mechanism to physically remove a product from someone's garage or patio. With a year and a half having passed since the recall, Flikr Fire units may remain in storage across San Diego County, unknown to current owners or forgotten entirely. The CPSC hotline for recalled products is 1-800-638-2772.
Also drawing law enforcement attention Tuesday was a homicide investigation in the Mountain View neighborhood in southeastern San Diego. SDPD confirmed on June 29th that a man was found severely burned inside a homeless encampment; he was transported to a hospital but did not survive. The department's Homicide Unit took over the investigation — a designation that signals authorities are treating the death as suspicious rather than accidental. No suspect information had been publicly disclosed as of Tuesday morning.