Fire Reportedly Started by Kids Playing with Lighter

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Updated: 8:18 PM Jan 6, 2011 Fire Reportedly Started by Kids Playing with Lighter A fire Thursday afternoon badly damaged a home in Charlottesville. The fire chief says the fire was started by children playing with a lighter. Posted: 2:05 PM Jan 6, 2011 Reporter: Chris Stover Email Address: chris.stover@newsplex.com

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January 6, 2010

A Charlottesville home is badly damaged after a fire Thursday afternoon.

Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner said the fire at 612 Gillespie Ave. was started by children playing with a lighter.

"Children have a tendency to play with matches and lighters. They're curious. In this case, [the fire] would've been avoided if we could have kept them out of the reach of the kids," said Werner.

Werner said two adults and "several" children were taken to the hospital as a precaution, but they did not have apparent injuries at the scene.

The fire caused extensive damage in one room of the house and smoke and water damage throughout the rest of the house.

Werner said the call came in at 1:10 Thursday afternoon. Crews were on the scene within four minutes and the fire was put out five minutes later.

Latest Comments

Posted by: bystander Location: greene on Jan 8, 2011 at 01:07 AM

hmmmm can you say underage kids

Posted by: King on Jan 7, 2011 at 05:06 PM

Would it be too much to ask for the reporter to actually attempt an interview with the family? These stories often leave so much on the table. It's frustrating. I'd love to know what the parents' explanation is. I'd love to know why the kids were'nt in school. I'd like to know where the parents were in the house while the kids were playing with fire.

Posted by: Jolene on Jan 7, 2011 at 05:01 PM

Hmmm...mid day on a Thursday...can you say truancy!

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