Flaming Mouse Burns Down House

Status: Hoax
Over in the forum, the 'flaming rodent of doom' thread discusses a story that was reported last weekend about a man who threw a mouse onto a pile of burning of leaves, only to have the mouse run out of the leaves and back at the house, setting the entire structure on fire. Served the guy right, most people thought. But the story also sounded a little too weird to be true. And sure enough, Charybdis just posted a link to an update (which I thought deserved a place here on the front page of the site) in which the guy whose house burned down swears that isn't what happened. He says the mouse was already dead when he threw it on the fire and the wind blew the flames towards his house:

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."

Animals

Posted on Tue Jan 10, 2006


Comments

Great catch, Chary!
Posted by Tru  on  Tue Jan 10, 2006  at  03:56 PM
The mouse story is really just a variation on an old-standby urban legend: The Animal's Revenge Against Cruel Humans.
Posted by Big Gary in the northern hemisphere  on  Tue Jan 10, 2006  at  04:51 PM
Well..he killed a mouse, then his house burned down. Even if the mouse didn't cause it, it still served him right.
Posted by Sakano  on  Tue Jan 10, 2006  at  05:07 PM
Haha! The AP needs to check sources before they publish!
Posted by Cathy  on  Tue Jan 10, 2006  at  08:17 PM
maybe this one is a hoax, but I can tell you that once it happened to me (with some small variants)

My parents own a country house (stricly for weekends and vacations)40 km from Oporto and every once in a while some mouse creeps in.

My girlfriend saw one who hid behind an iron plaque in the fire place.

Through the space between wall and plate we gased him with cockroaches spray and drenched that part of the fireplace with alcohol.

At this time I lit the alcohol and a mouse on fire runs out!

I had barely the time of hiting it with an iron rod in the middle of the rug (and had to put out the mouse nad the carpet)

I was a bit scred thinking about what would have happened if it had got away and hid bellow the ceilling (where they usualy hang around)

so before being a sadist and gazing, torching and slamming a mouse think twice (I will)

p.s. it's amazing the speed at wich an alcohol soaked mouse runs when set on fire. don't trust the fact that it almost stopped moving from gaz and alcohol vapours

p.p.s. without alcohol or gasoline i doubt that you can really "flame" a mouse, it'll run at first flame and fur doesn't burn that well, when I killed the mouse and the flames the fur was almost intact
Posted by from portugal  on  Wed Jan 11, 2006  at  09:12 AM
Actually the guy changed his story again. Now he says the mouse was stuck to some sticky mouse paper. The guy threw the paper and the mouse into the fire and the mouse came out with the burning paper stuck to itself and ran under the house. 90 seconds later the house was ablaze. The homeowner has no insurance.
Posted by T C Gage  on  Wed Jan 11, 2006  at  10:49 PM
"Now he says the mouse was stuck to some sticky mouse paper. The guy threw the paper and the mouse into the fire and the mouse came out with the burning paper stuck to itself"

As I mentioned in my early post THAT I CAN BELIEVE (i said the fur would never burn enough)

"and ran under the house. 90 seconds later the house was ablaze"

ahhh!!! and he had what under the house? gasoline? plastic bags? 90 seconds... right
Posted by from portugal  on  Thu Jan 12, 2006  at  04:00 AM
It could happen in 90 seconds.
Posted by a fireman  on  Thu Jan 12, 2006  at  07:17 AM
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/10/mouse.fire.ap/index.html

Looks like he changed his story again.
Posted by Iridium  on  Sat Jan 14, 2006  at  12:10 PM
This business with a mouse setting a house afire occurs in the Burt Renyolds movie "The Crew", where they use a mouse to set a mansion on fire by tying a flaming rag to it's tail, and putting it inside a crawlspace.

Sounds to me like this guy saw the movie. (skeptical)
Posted by warmbear  on  Thu Mar 09, 2006  at  05:29 PM
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