WASHINGTON (AFP) – A Utah man was detained this week after he started a wildfire when he tried to kill a spider using a lighter, the local sheriff’s office said.
Twenty-six-year-old Cory Martin “was found where the fire started and told police he tried to kill a spider with a lighter and in the process started a fire,” the Utah County Sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.
The state has been in the grip of a severe drought – along with much of the country’s southwest – as part of a two-decade phenomenon scientists say is being exacerbated by climate change.
The fire, sparked on Tuesday near the city of Springville, an hour south of the state capital Salt Lake City, covered 60 acres and was 90 per cent contained by Wednesday, according to Utah Fire Info.
