Man Starts Apartment Fire Trying To Kill A Spider

A Northern California man set fire to his apartment Sunday while trying to kill a large spider with a torch lighter, according to the Record Searchlight.

The fire in Redding, California, caused $11,000 damage to the building, according to fire officials, and forced the three people who lived there to move out.

The apartment was home to two men and a caregiver to one of the men, Lyndsey Wisegarver.

“It was a huge wolf spider,” Wisegarver told the paper.

She said that the man attempted to kill the spider with a torch lighter, a more powerful and pressurized version of a standard lighter. The spider then caught on fire and moved on to a mattress, setting it ablaze. The residents managed to put the mattress fire out, but not before it had spread to a flag collection and drapes. The fire spread from there.

Fire officials said the resident attempted to put the fire out with a garden hose but were ultimately unsuccessful.

The Redding Fire Department said that they do not yet have an official designation for what started the fire and will investigate the claim about the spider.

“The information regarding the spider was presented by civilian witnesses, at the scene of the fire, and is certainly part of our investigation,” Fire Department Chief Gerry Gray told the BBC.

No injuries were reported in the incident and firefighters were able to put out the blaze before it reached other apartments.

The body of a wolf spider can grow to more than 1.3 inches large.