A fire safety demonstration organized by a daycare center in northern Vietnam on Friday ended up sending three preschoolers to hospital for burns after flame and strong winds spelled disaster.

Around two dozen students, aged one to five, were attending the demo at the Tuoi Tho (Childhood) Daycare in Ha Nam Province, 50 kilometers south of Hanoi.

In a live presentation on extinguishing small fires, the instructor poured industrial alcohol into a tray before lighting it on fire.

Strong winds sent the fire onto three kids, aged three to five, at the front row.

Teachers used damp towels, prepared for the demonstration, to quickly put out the fire and rushed the kids to the hospital.

One of them suffered from large area burns while the other two sustained minor burn injuries, a representative from the Ha Nam General Hospital told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Procedures were being done to transfer the victims to the 103 Military Hospital in Hanoi for better burn treatment as of Friday, the representative said.

Officers are already working with the daycare center to investigate the incident, said Vu Minh Dong, police chief of Duy Minh Commune in Duy Tien District, Ha Nam.

“The privately run daycare was only licensed around three months ago,” Dong said.

The center is in charge of two groups of students, one for children aged 1-2.5 and the other for those aged three to five, according to the police chief.

“All 25 children from the two groups were allowed to participate in the fire safety demonstration,” he said.

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