I Was Severely Burned In A Fire At 14 | Then The Pain Meds Led Me To Fentanyl

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning · Sep 26, 2026 · 1h 5m

William Ellis was 14 years old, a freshman in high school, when gas splashed onto him near a smoldering fire and he went up in flames from the waist up. He survived second- and third-degree burns, skin grafts, and months in a burn unit — but the narcotics that came home from the pharmacy with him started an addiction that would last most of his life. What began as prescribed painkillers turned into selling pills at school, forging prescriptions across four states with his mother, and eventually shooting heroin and fentanyl just to keep the sickness away.

William is the third of the Ellis…