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Letter to the editor

Boy blamed for Calif. wildfire

He was playing with matches in his back yard, officials say.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published November 1, 2007

LOS ANGELES - Officials blamed a wildfire that consumed more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes last week on a boy playing with matches, and they said they will ask a prosecutor to consider the case.

The boy admitted sparking the fire on Oct. 21, Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Diane Hecht said Tuesday. Ferocious winds helped it spread quickly.

"He admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire," Hecht said in a statement.

Police did not release the boy's name. On Wednesday, Los Angeles County fire Capt. Michael Brown would say only that he was younger than 13.

The boy was released to his parents, Hecht said.

The blaze, which began in the boy's back yard and spread quickly through the neighborhood, was among 15 or so major wildfires that destroyed some 2,100 homes and blackened 809 square miles from Los Angeles to the Mexican border last week. Seven deaths were blamed directly on the fires. In addition, six evacuees died of natural causes and one person died of a fall.

All but four of the blazes are now fully contained.

Meanwhile, scientists figure that in just one week, Southern California's wildfires spewed as much carbon dioxide - the primary global warming gas - as the state's power plants and vehicles do in a week.

A study by two Colorado researchers shows that U.S. wildfires pump a significant amount of the greenhouse gas into the air each year, more than the state of Pennsylvania.

On average, wildfires in the United States each year emit 322-million tons of carbon dioxide. That's about 5 percent of what the country emits by burning fossil fuels, such as gasoline and coal, according to the new research published online in the peer-reviewed journal Carbon Balance and Management.

[Last modified November 1, 2007, 00:28:12]