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Applewold House Fire Caused by a Bird

The siding of this Applewold home was burnt when a bird brought a lit cigarette butt to its nest.

by Olivia Wasilko

A small fire yesterday that caused minor damage to the Applewold resident’s house was caused by a mischievous bird building a home.

It is believed that a bird who lives in the siding of the house took a man’s smoldering cigarette to use as material for its nest.

“If someone throws a cigarette down, the birds pick it up, put it in their nests, and it starts a fire,” said East Franklin Fire Chief Mark Feeney.

“We had the same exact fire five years prior to this guy owning the house. We watched the security cameras and the birds love that planter there in the siding of the house. It’s the same thing that we think happened here today.”

Feeney reports that the fire was easily controlled. In addition to the East Franklin Fire Department’s help, the resident’s neighbor had used his own garden hose to contain the fire until Feeney and his men arrived.

“We had firemen come straight to the scene and they had the water hose on it. The neighbor had his hose on it and we had a couple of our guys come in private vehicles and they got it doused out. They got the siding knocked down,” he said.

The house was in surprisingly good shape, with only a small area of aluminum siding being burned. The bird, however, is not so lucky.

“The homeowner’s going to tear that planter out of there today. Like he said, he didn’t know this prior to when he moved in but it did happen five years ago: same house, same thing.”

In order to prevent another incident, the East Franklin Fire Department asks that smokers properly dispose of their cigarette butts and to make sure that they are completely put out before leaving them.

Local News | Olivia Wasilko June 14, 2016