The Revenge Of A Mouse

**lizbud** · 01-08-2006, 06:28 PM

Burning Mouse Ignites Blaze That Destroys Home

POSTED: 5:19 pm EST January 8, 2006

FORT SUMNER, N.M. -- The village fire captain said he's never seen a blaze as unique as this.

A Fort Sumner, N.M., man said he caught a mouse inside his house and wanted to get rid of it. He had a pile of leaves burning outside, so he threw the mouse on it. The mouse caught fire and ran back into the house.

Luciano Mares, 81, talked about the event Saturday from a motel room. The blaze the mouse started destroyed the home and everything inside it.

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

**IRescue452** · 01-08-2006, 07:00 PM

haha good for the mouse. Too bad I'm sure its dead. We had one in our front yard today, getting nuts the squirrels knocked down from the feeder. He should have just put the mouse outside and fixed up wherever the mouse got in. A more sensible way to prevent mice from getting in in the first place. People are so smart.

**moosmom** · 01-08-2006, 07:10 PM

I'm glad he set the house on fire!!

Jerk! Serves him right for throwing the mouse in the fire in the first place!!

RIP little guy.

**smokey the elder** · 01-09-2006, 07:53 AM

Sounds like the movie Mouse Hunt. Poor mouse.

**lv4dogs** · 01-09-2006, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by moosmom

I'm glad he set the house on fire!!

Jerk! Serves him right for throwing the mouse in the fire in the first place!!

RIP little guy.

Ditto!

**ramanth** · 01-09-2006, 11:45 AM

Karma.

Here's another article about it:

FORT SUMNER, N.M. (AP) - A mouse got its revenge against a homeowner who tried to dispose of it in a pile of burning leaves. The blazing creature ran back to the man's house and set it on fire.

Luciano Mares, 81, of Fort Sumner said he caught the mouse inside his house 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," Mares said from a motel room Saturday.

Village Fire Chief Juan Chavez said the burning mouse ran to just beneath a window, and the flames spread up from there and throughout the house.

No was hurt inside, but the home and everything in it was destroyed.

Unseasonably dry and windy conditions have charred more than 53,000 acres and destroyed 10 homes in southeastern New Mexico in recent weeks.

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

Hope that mouse comes back as a hawk and pecks the guys eyes out. Jerk.

**elizabethann** · 01-09-2006, 12:06 PM

Mouse = 1
Cruel Man = 0

I guess this was an eye for an eye.

**lizbud** · 01-10-2006, 11:34 AM

Oh well, it was a interesting story.

Flaming Mouse Story Found To Be False
Rumor Squashed: Flaming Mouse Didn't Start House Fire

UPDATED: 9:39 am EST January 10, 2006

FORT SUMNER, N.M. -- 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 TheIndyChannel.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 in Albuquerque. 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."

Previous Story:
January 9, 2006: Burning Mouse Ignites Blaze That Destroys Home

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**zippy-kat** · 01-10-2006, 01:08 PM

I hadn't heard this until today! lol

Maybe it was the mouse-ghost that caught the house on fire.

**RICHARD** · 01-10-2006, 02:04 PM

Toss ANYTHING into an open fire and the sparks will fly. Technically the mouse DID start the fire.

--------------------------

I always thought New Mexico was an odd place...

I prefer the Old Mexico, myself.

**WolvesRawk** · 01-15-2006, 07:19 PM

I read about this earlier. I haden't heard about it being false though. That's sort of dissapointing. Either way, that's Karma!

**Killearn Kitties** · 01-17-2006, 04:43 AM

I don't think it matters a bit that the story isn't true. There is a very long tradition of apocryphal stories that contain a moral. People enjoy these kind of stories, because even if they are not true, they should be.

Do we know where the poor old guy is now? Does he have a roof over his head? I do hope he is not sleeping in a charred field thinking about people all over the world who are glad his house burnt down!