Chinese boy accidentally sets fire to family home while trying to scare off pet dog
Five-year-old had been left alone in Chongqing flat with dog and a lighter
A five-year-old boy in southwest China burned down his family’s living room after trying to scare off the family’s pet dog, a local newspaper reported.
The boy, who had been left alone in the flat, picked up a lighter to scare off the dog which had been chewing his belongings and preventing him from doing his homework, the Chongqing Morning Post reported on Wednesday.
But the boy set fire to the sofa in the fifth floor flat in the Dadukou district of Chongqing and ran out of the flat to call for help.
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A reporter from the newspaper arrived on the scene to find that firefighters had already extinguished the blaze, which had gutted the flat and ruined the furniture.
No one was hurt in the fire, but it had spread to the flats above and below the family home.
The frightened boy told the newspaper he had not meant to set fire to the furniture.
“My puppy disturbed me from doing homework and bit my stuff, so I picked up a lighter on the table to scare him off,” he added.
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The report said the boy’s parents were working outside Chongqing and he lives with his grandparents, whose names were not given.
The report also said that the flat was full of cardboard and plastic bottles because the boy’s grandmother, a sanitation worker, collected the recyclables to make extra money.
Although no one was injured in the incident, the pet dog appears to have vanished.
