# Boy playing with matches started US fire
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 31, 2007, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677 "2007-10-31T05:03:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/1 "2007-10-31T05:03:04Z")
[Boy playing with matches started US fire](http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Boy-playing-with-matches-started-US-fire/2007/10/31/1193618954985.html)
[QUOTE=SMH]
A boy playing with matches started a fire in north Los Angeles County that consumed more than 15,378 hectares and destroyed 21 homes last week, authorities said.
The boy, whose name and age were not released, was interviewed a day after the Buckweed Fire was sparked on October 21, Sergeant Diane Hecht said.
“He admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire,” said Hecht said in a statement.
The boy was released to his parents, and the case will be presented to the district attorney’s office, Hecht said.
[/QUOTE]
What should happen to the boy? His parents? I guess depending on his age reactions will vary - if he’s 4 I don’t see what useful can be done, but if he’s 12 or 14 or 16 … ? Send him out with the fire trucks?
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/2 "2007-10-31T05:06:34Z")
Perhaps we can figure out a way to have him declared a witch. Because we all know what we do with witches …
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### Author:  [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/3 "2007-10-31T05:31:29Z")
We should do nothing. This was a kid doing stupid kid things, and this time it got out of hand. That’s pretty much the end of it.
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/4 "2007-10-31T05:38:14Z")
It might also depend on what “playing with matches” meant. If he was in fact deliberately burning things in a forest, it may not have been so harmless. If he was doing it in a shed which he accidentally burnt down which in turn set off the forest fire, you’re right.
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### Author:  [@WoodenTaco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WoodenTaco)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/5 "2007-10-31T05:42:43Z")
[QUOTE=Askance]
It might also depend on what “playing with matches” meant. If he was in fact deliberately burning things in a forest, it may not have been so harmless. If he was doing it in a shed which he accidentally burnt down which in turn set off the forest fire, you’re right.
[/QUOTE]
Ok, so how do you figure out whether he was trying to burn the forest down? You ask him?
Seems like it’s hard to justify cracking down on the kid.
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### Author:  [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/6 "2007-10-31T06:16:05Z")
Well, would it be fair to consider his parents negligent? I mean, depending on his age, they very well may have had the responsibility to keep a close eye on him and keep him away from fire.
This isn’t necessarily what I believe, just a thought that cam to mind.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/7 "2007-10-31T06:36:13Z")
[QUOTE=Snooooopy]
Perhaps we can figure out a way to have him declared a witch. Because we all know what we do with witches …
[/QUOTE]
In the American colonies, we _hanged_ them.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/8 "2007-10-31T06:47:38Z")
[QUOTE=DiosaBellissima]
Well, would it be fair to consider his parents negligent? I mean, depending on his age, they very well may have had the responsibility to keep a close eye on him and keep him away from fire.
[/QUOTE]
Under the general common law rule, parents are _not_ vicariously responsible for torts committed by their child. Exceptions are made for parents who fail to control the child while in their presence, or who fail to take reasonable care to protect others from known dangerous tendencies of the child, or who fail to prevent a child’s foreseeable use of inherently dangerous instruments.
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### Author:  [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/9 "2007-10-31T07:13:42Z")
Well, wouldn’t this case fall under the last exemption you give, **Walloon**?
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/10 "2007-10-31T07:20:31Z")
The key words are “foreseeable” and “inherently”.
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### Author:  [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/11 "2007-10-31T10:24:50Z")
How many kids are out there playing with matches and not starting county sized fires? This is the same case, except that wind and combustibles had it go different.
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### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/12 "2007-10-31T11:24:13Z")
start banning all children with matchsticks on planes.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/13 "2007-10-31T11:42:28Z")
This happened to us when we were kids. We started a brush fire by playing with matches. Nothing of this size, of course. It started burning dry grass in a field, and was extinguished fairly quickly. I don’t know what happened to the other kids, but I had to cut my dad a hickory switch. I cut a big one because if you cut little ones, the whipping only lasted longer and had more power behind it.
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### Author:  [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/14 "2007-10-31T11:53:20Z")
My immediate reaction was, “DAMN KIDS TODAY!!”
I don’t know what they should do with him. I’m sure the boy didn’t feel much pleasure seeing the distruction he caused. It’d be interesting to see how the authorities tracked him down, though.
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### Author:  [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/15 "2007-10-31T12:20:03Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon]
In the American colonies, we _hanged_ them.
[/QUOTE]
So what do we hang as well as witches?
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### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/16 "2007-10-31T12:44:59Z")
We just can’t let kids have matches after 9/11.
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### Author:  [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/17 "2007-10-31T12:47:07Z")
[QUOTE=Snooooopy]
Perhaps we can figure out a way to have him declared a witch. Because we all know what we do with witches …
[/QUOTE]
Build a bridge out of 'em!
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### Author:  [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/18 "2007-10-31T13:16:00Z")
Was the boy an Al-Qaeda terrorist? Fox News said he might be.
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/19 "2007-10-31T13:22:20Z")
Can we still blame it on Beavis and Butthead?
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2007, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boy-playing-with-matches-started-us-fire/424677/20 "2007-10-31T13:33:15Z")
[QUOTE=Tapioca Dextrin]
So what do we hang as well as witches?
[/QUOTE]
Drapes?
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