Mouse Sets House On Fire Story Not True

[IzzyEng4 427]

I founds this on Firehouse.com today. I'm pasting the article below.

Firehouse.com Home > News Headlines

Flaming Mouse Story Doused

Updated: 01-11-2006 05:04:47 PM

Story by thenewmexicochannel.com

A small town rumor that sparked world wide interest about a mouse burning down a house has been found to be untrue.

After 81-year-old Chano Mares's house burned down Saturday in Fort Sumner, news services picked up the quirky story.

"Flaming Mouse Burns Down House" read the headline over an Associated Press story that appeared on TheNewMexicoChannel.com, for example.

According to the initial report, Mares threw the critter in a pile of burning leaves near his home, but it ran back to the house on fire.

A local firefighter said the mouse ran to just beneath a window and the flames spread up the window and throughout the house.

All contents of the home were destroyed, but no one was injured.

Interest in fires has been high lately. Unseasonably dry and windy conditions have charred more than 53,000 acres and destroyed 10 homes in southeastern New Mexico in recent weeks.

The mouse story, however, has been doused by Mares.

"It's really humorous more than anything that a mouse burned down the house," he told KOAT-TV. Thing is, the mouse was dead when it hit the burning leaves.

Mares said he trapped and killed the critter and tossed it on the fire.

The flames, he said, probably reached his house because they were driven by high winds.

Capt. Jim Lyssy of the Fort Sumner Fire Department said the rumor probably got started because there was "a little too much excitement" at the time of the fire.

Mares lost everything -- and has no insurance -- but the mouse story still makes him smile.

"I started laughing, and I'll be laughing from now on," he said. "It's silly."

Copyright 2006 by TheNewMexicoChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

UNBELEIVEABLE!!!!

[Guest]

Pretty smart to be burning leaves next to your house with the emergency situation in N.M. (grass fires)..... Thanks IzzyEng4 for finding the TRUE story.

Well, the homeowner, is laughing about it....

[Skooter92 7]

Blame the mouse, blame the mouse, it's always blame the mouse.

Doubtless it was sabotage. Perhaps the cat?

Shifty little whisker bastards.

I've got two of them.

They are always laughing at me behind my back.

They think I don't hear them....just wait.

Edited January 15, 2006 by Skooter92