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From the BBC...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4593682.stm

<font color=yellow>Blazing mouse sets fire to house

A US man threw a mouse he had found in his home onto a pile of burning leaves - only to see it run away and burn his house down.
Luciano Mares, 81, of Fort Sumner, New Mexico, found a mouse in his home and wanted to get rid of it.

"I had some leaves burning outside, so I threw it in the fire, and the mouse was on fire and ran back at the house," he was quoted as saying by AP.

Though no-one was injured, the house and everything in it was destroyed.

"I've seen numerous house fires, but nothing as unique as this one," Fire Department Captain Jim Lyssy said.

New Mexico has seen several major blazes after unseasonably dry and windy conditions which have destroyed 10 homes and devastated more than 53,000 acres (21,200 hectares) of land. </font id=yellow>

Sounds like a fabricated insurance claim to me...



You're born, you keep your head down and you die. If you're lucky...

Imaginative, if not true!

"Pilots Without Maintainers are Just Pedestrians With Leather Jackets and Cool Sunglasses."

_________________
\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote> Imaginative, if not true!<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>

Who showed you my CV..?

You're born, you keep your head down and you die. If you're lucky...

I saw the TV report last night. The fire captian said the old man still had sense of humor about it, although he lost everything.

Fender
"A woman drove me to drink
and I hadn't even the courtesy to thank her".
W.C. Fields

Edited by - Fenderstrat72 on Jan 10 2006 5:12 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>Who showed you my CV..?<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote> Every time you post, 44, we see a bit more!<img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>

"Pilots Without Maintainers are Just Pedestrians With Leather Jackets and Cool Sunglasses."

_________________
\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (Jan. 11) - Was it really a mouse that burned down Luciano Mares' house? Or was it just the wind?

Mares' story of a flaming mouse that scampered from a burning pile of leaves into his rural home Saturday drew international media attention. Then on Monday, the 81-year-old told an Albuquerque television station that strong wind spread burning leaves, leveling his home of more than two decades.

But on Tuesday, Mares and his nephew stood by his original version that a mouse was the culprit.

"That dang mouse crawled in there," Mares said in a telephone interview from a motel in Fort Sumner, where he is staying with his nephew. "I have an awful hate for those critters."

In the interview, Mares recounted three times the series of events Saturday: A little mouse got caught in one of the glue traps he'd set in and around his home. He was pleased - mice were a nuisance, they'd been bothering him for some time, leaving droppings everywhere. And they were hard to get rid of. This mouse, too, was resilient - trapped but still moving. The glue was sticky; he couldn't pull the mouse off.

So, according to Mares, he went outside and threw the whole deal - mouse and trap - onto the burning leaves. The mouse, now ablaze, scrambled to safety, then headed back for the house and disappeared inside a window. About 90 seconds later, the house was on fire.

How did the mouse run away, still trapped in the glue?


"I have an awful hate for those critters."
-Luciano Mares, on his battle with mice

"The fire melted the glue and he got away," Mares said.

Is that plausible? Fort Sumner Fire Chief Juan Chavez said Tuesday he thinks so.

"There's no reason for him to lie about what he told us," Chaves said. "I don't doubt it at all."

Fire crews arrived within minutes of the blaze and questioned Mares.

"I think he knew right then what happened. It's the story he told us, it's the story he told everyone else," Chavez said.

Richard Mares, 37, who is helping his uncle recover from the fire and figure out what the future holds, said his uncle has told him the same story many times.

"He said the mouse wasn't dead and it took off," the younger Mares said. He added: "We're really devastated. We lost all photos of our family, all his papers. He's a veteran of World War II. He's been through a lot."

Could his uncle have been rattled by the events and mistaken about the mouse? "He may be a little confused," Mares conceded.

With no further investigation planned, Chavez said his department's report of the fire will reflect that the burning critter ran back to the house.


01-11-06 04:47 EST

I sure hope no one believed this!!!!! That would be a first for me, seen lots of things in my firefighting adventures but never a flaming mouse cause a house fire!