COLUMBUS, Ohio – Admitting he’s been teased about it all his life, local man Scott Huffman is a regular Frankenstein’s monster when it comes to his irrational fear of fire.
“I know it’s something I should get over and just grow out of like everyone else,” Huffman said. “But there’s something about the thought of being engulfed in flames that just gives me the heebie-jeebies.”
Friends have repeatedly tried to make Huffman face his fear, but so far with little success.
“We’ve thrown lit matches at him, pushed him towards campfires, even locked him in that burning toolshed for a half hour,” Huffman’s girlfriend Emily Li said. “But nothing works.”
Though he appreciates their efforts, Huffman says he mostly just receives regular ribbing from his circle of friends.
“Oh, I’ve heard them all,” Huffman said. “‘Fire bad!,’ ‘Burn, baby, burn!,’ ‘Hey, Scott, I bet you don’t want your flesh to start smoldering and sluice off the bone!’ Those guys are nuts.”
And while Huffman would like to conquer his fear, he believes it will be with him for a long time to come. Asked where he believes his phobia came from he said, “Oh, it probably goes back to when my dad burned alive in that car accident.”
