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Teagan Warner insists that he wants to be the one to peel off the wound veil, a mesh fabric that envelops his spindly 9-year-old legs, covered with skin grafts to replace badly burned skin.

Wearing blue medical gloves and aided by three nurses, Teagan gingerly lifts the mesh, wincing and exclaiming, "I hate taking off this stuff!"

Teagan has been at the University of Utah's Burn Trauma Intensive Care Unit for nearly six weeks, and, except for the week or more he was in a medically induced coma, has participated in his own care, say his parents, Hollie and Chris Warner of Cottonwood Heights.

His spunk is remarkable, they say, given what he has suffered. "He's a tough little guy," says Chris Warner, his father.

Teagan received third-degree burns on his legs, as well as second- and third-degree burns on his face, arms, belly and one foot when his fleece pajama pants caught fire and melted onto his lower body during a camping trip. Teagan was wearing a cotton hoodie and cotton underwear, which protected his upper body, genitals and backside.

The boy was standing about 15 feet from where a friend of the Warners was putting lighter fluid on briquettes.

When the friend lit the briquettes, the can caught fire and he dropped the fluid, splashing a line of burning fuel toward Teagan, whose pajama pants ignited.

"I'm mad because nobody should have to go through that," says Hollie Warner, who has stayed with her son at the U. hospital since the Aug. 2 accident at the Mirror Lake campground in the Uintah mountains.

The Warners hope that by telling Teagan's story, others will learn of the dangers of wearing fleece near fire.

"Everyone packs the warmest thing they own [for camping], and that's fleece," says Hollie Warner.

But never again. "We didn't know just how dangerous it can be," she says.

It was next to impossible to put out the burning fabric, she says, describing how she pushed Teagan to the ground and made him roll. She, Chris and a 16-year-old friend tried slapping out the fire, but the fabric continued to burn, coming off her son's body in melted chunks.

The label on the pajamas — the top is adorned with a "Minions" character — says they are flame-resistant. They were purchased at Wal-Mart and were a gift to Teagan, Hollie Warner says.

The parents have not considered legal action; just being with Teagan is consuming all their attention.

The boy has had a rough recovery.

Alert from the start, he was awake as his parents rushed him toward Evanston, Wyo., where they were intercepted by paramedics they had alerted when they got within cellphone range.

Teagan was stabilized and sent by medical helicopter to the U.

From the start, Teagan would not let his doctors or nurses do anything before he quizzed them about what they were about to do, Hollie Warner says. He watched as they pulled off his dead skin, piece by piece.

He seemed to be doing fine for the first three days, but then he "crashed," as she puts it.

Teagan's body, overtaxed from trying to heal from the burns, could not get rid of liquids, and he swelled everywhere, including his eyes. His liver became twice its normal size, and his heart was stressed.

Teagan was put into a coma, and since awakening from that, he has battled pneumonia and infections.

On Tuesday, Teagan got pancreatitis, which might have been caused by the painkillers or perhaps by the burns themselves.

That pain was even worse than that from the burns, his mother says.

By Friday, though, Teagan was on the mend and even using needleless syringes filled with water to squirt his mother and nurses.

His goal now is to be out of the hospital — and home with his three little brothers — by Halloween.

"He's a fantastic cook, better than most college freshmen," boasts his father, ticking off some of Teagan's dishes: stir fry, homemade applesauce, pie.

"Apple chips!" Teagan adds.

His nurse, Natalie Murphy, says Teagan has promised to bake her an apple pie when he goes home.

And when that happens, Teagan also will finally get to eat the pie he made for the Aug. 2 camping trip. It's a candy bar pie, Teagan says. And it's waiting in the freezer at home.

Twitter: @KristenMoulton —

Follow Teagan's recovery

The family is posting updates and photos from the University of Utah's Burn Trauma Intensive Care Unit at the Teag is Tough Facebook page.