How This Kalamazoo Man Fell Into National TV

Accidentally setting my neighbor's yard on fire has gotten National attention.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not burn on your property on windy days.  In some cases you may need a burn permit from your township.  You can also check with your township to find out if there is a current burn ban.

It's weird to have your mom brag on Facebook that her son is on Inside Edition when the reason you're on that National TV show is your lack of sound decision-making.  You can see my interviews with Inside Edition and WWMT below.  But first, let me explain what happened.  Last Saturday, Southwest Michigan hit 70° for the first time since October 20th, 2021.  I was enjoying the warm weather so much that I forgot about the wind advisory.  At some points in the day, wind gusts reached near 60 MPH.  So, I threw caution to the wind and burned a couple of boxes with old mail in my burn pit.  That's when my fiance' approached me and asked why I would start a fire during a wind advisory.

My male pride took over and I told her that I have it under control.  Within seconds of that statement, a heavy wind came along and blew the flame into my neighbor's yard quickly catching dry leaves on fire.  I jumped into action.  Well, I attempted to jump into action.

I tried to jump over the fence only to fall on my back into the burning leaves.  The fact that my body smothered much of the fire out is a silver lining, I guess.

For me personally, the funniest part of the video is my fiance' walking away and not looking back.

Inside Edition also put my video and interview on their youtube page which has over 10 million subscribers.  Yikes.  Here's my interview with Stephanie Officer on Inside Edition.

Get our free mobile app

Oddly enough, the viral video that got me all of this viral attention has been taken down by TikTok for alleged 'Community Guideline Violations.'  I appealed the removal of the video 3 days ago but haven't heard back from TikTok.

You can also see my interview with Christina Anthony at WWMT by clicking here.