Police: 3-Year-Old With Blowtorch Sets Neighborhood Fires

[RamboLiberal]

Police said it seems that a 3-year-old was able to operate a handheld blowtorch and set fires in his family's garage and on a neighbor's porch in Shenango Township, Lawrence County.

Firefighters were called at about 9:30 a.m. Friday to extinguish the flames.

Township police said somebody reported seeing the boy walking on Route 388, carrying the blowtorch and wearing only a T-shirt.

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Police said the boy's mother was asleep in the house, exhausted after having worked a midnight shift, and the father was at work.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42936764

Wow - glad the kid didn't burn himself. And you always blame parents who are working to the point of exaustion just to pay the rent & buy food & other necessities.

[musette_sf]

1. thought this was an opening chapter of

"Young Georgie Bush"

[Quantess]

2. Well sure...but it's hard to point the finger at anyone else but the parents.

Mom in particular. But still, I understand the exhaustion factor.

[1620rock]

4. Don't know much about blow-torches, but how did he light it??

[Tesha]

8. Some strike as you pull the trigger (like the gas matches many of us use). (NT)

[WatsonT]

7. Put it where the kid can't get to it

simple enough. Parenting 101.

Question 1: can this kill my kid.

Question 2: is there any possibility he could use it? (for instance a couch could kill a child if dropped on him, but he's unlikely to be able to life it).

If the answer to both is: yes then lock it up or put it up high.

[Arkansas Granny]

23. Even when you think you have childproofed your home, they will find

a way to get ahold of something dangerous, despite your best efforts.

[Warpy]

24. Chances it came from a construction site

I found one of those when I was three. I had the handle and didn't get hurt. The mean little kid who tried to snatch it away grabbed the hot part.

I worked nights and I have no idea how parents did it when the day care fell through.

If this country wants places like hospitals staffed at night, it's going to have to do much better at providing child care for the people who work in them.

It's not Mom. It's this country that's hostile to working people, to mothers, and most especially to working mothers.

[Liberal_in_LA]

21. Young to be wandering about with blowtorch

[Fla_Democrat]

3. It's obvious that we need more

Blowtorch control. :evilgrin:





:smoke:

[Curmudgeoness]

5. I just saw this on the local news, and all I can say is

how the hell did the kid get the blowtorch, how did he get it lit, how did he not hurt himself??? I am waiting on more info, maybe in the newspaper tomorrow or in the coming days, before I judge or not. But my first gut instinct is that no three year old should be unsupervised. And obviously, especially this one.

[WatsonT]

6. I'm guessing the 3 year old wasn't over 5 ft tall

and at least one of the parents probably is.

So put things that can kill people above that line.

Problem solved.

[RamboLiberal]

9. 3 year olds are very clever at finding objects they can climb on

If they are determined enough to get something.

[WatsonT]

10. One would hope that when it comes to potentially lethal items

the parents would be at least as clever and intelligent as a three year old.

[1monster]

11. Three year olds can climb and can be very clever about it. Many years

ago, one of my younger sisters, who was two or three at the time, moved a high chair to a counter and climbed on the counter. From there she was able to open the cupboard that served as a medicine cabinet. That bottom of that cabinet was five feet from the floor.

She ended up having her stomach pumped.

As for supervision, she had five older siblings. She could hardly have been called unsupervised. It was almost impossible to be alone in that house. She just happened to find one and acted quickly. She thought it was candy hidden up there.

[WatsonT]

12. So can monkeys

but when they get loose we generally blame whoever was in charge for not doing a better job containing it.

[mysuzuki2]

13. Will he be tried as an adult?

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. Gonna go get myself some hard-hittin' toddlers and a blowtorch...

[KurtNYC]

15. Is his name 'Arthur Brown' ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOErZuzZpS8


edit: add youtube link to Arthur Brown "Fire" 1968 -- I had heard thie song 800 times, first time I saw the video; holy crap

[Gregorian]

16. At three I was on my tractor pulling false fire alarms.

I'll always remember the time the hook and ladder truck came racing up. I had just pulled the lever on that box on the telephone pole. The fire chief walked behind me as I raced home on my tractor. My mom was in the front yard. The fireman said it cast a hundred dollars every time they had to come out. A hundred bucks.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. I think it's appropriate to blame the parents for not putting that blowtorch up

where the child couldn't have gotten it.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RamboLiberal]

25. Bullpucky - how dare you ascribe my motives or call me dishonest in posting a story

I didn't post it to make any equivalency with guns. I happen to post a wide variety of topics I find intersting on DU. You owe me an apology!

[apocalypsehow]

26. I owe you nothing. My analysis is spot-on, and irrefutable upon deeper examination. n/t.

[RamboLiberal]

27. Your analysis is a big spot of bull shit

I know where you were doing your deep examination and it wasn't in your brain!

[apocalypsehow]

28. My analysis stands as a big pile of fact, and it's amusing to see how heated the personal attacks

come flying in opposition to it. I've found, over the years, that I don't usually have to commence spewing stuff about another poster's "brain" when I have the facts on my side, as I do here - and you don't.

Very telling, that...per usual.

[RamboLiberal]

30. Hah facts - reading some of your posts you wouldn't know a fact

if it hit you smack in the face. And I don't have time to debate with someone who refuses to debate rationally and ascribes false motives to posters who have been here for quite awhile. You are now on my ignore list. I'm not wasting another second of my life on this.

[apocalypsehow]

32. "You are now on my ignore list" - What does this make? Like, the fifth time or something?

:shrug:

[Ghost in the Machine]

34. "You are now on my ignore list. I'm not wasting another second of my life on this."

That's the best course of action you could have taken with this one.. where some of these people get their overinflated egos from is beyond me. I'd ignore them too, but I get too many belly laughs out of their drivel.

:hi:

[apocalypsehow]

36. "That's the best course of action you could have taken with this one.." - Yeah, it's always a sure

sign that I've carried the motion before the house when the almighty IGNORE button is invoked. So it's a win-win for all concerned.

[RamboLiberal]

38. +1 Thanks

[apocalypsehow]

29. BTW, do you support sensible gun control in this country?

[RamboLiberal]

31. Ignored

[apocalypsehow]

33. "Ignored" - Make that *ignore* promise #6....any day now, I reckon. n/t.

[JVS]

35. Placement of the blowtorch isn't really the issue. Leaving the kid unsupervised is.

Unless the child is sleeping too, a slumbering parent is not adequate supervision.

[Obamanaut]

18. If it had been a gun, the parents would be labeled irresponsible. Obviously,

a loaded blowtorch in a child's hand can cause damage.


Of course the parents should be blamed.

[angstlessk]

19. When I was four year old I took the bus for a 'Joy Ride'..no I did not drive it..I rode it

I conned the folks at my fathers business to give me money for a 'coke and nabs' till I had accrued enough to pay for my bus ride.

I had taken the bus with my mother many times so I knew the procedure and waited patiently for the bus, climbed aboard, put my exact cash into the appropriate device and sat proudly at a window seat....till

After about 1/2 hour or so the bus stopped and the bus driver turned to me and said..."little girl, this is the end of the line, you have to get off"

I reluctantly walked down the aisle and down the steps into uncharted territory, and started to walk and cry and cry and cry. I realize now I should have had a 'Master Plan' that would either allow me to ride the bus into infinity or at least back home...but that was then, and I was four.

Luckily for me some little girl who stayed home sick from school, and her mother must have been VERY LIBERAL (cause if I was home sick, I had to stay in bed) was outside jumping rope and saw me walking and crying and crying and crying..and asked me what was the matter and I told her I was lost...she immediately notified her mother who called the police.

When the police came to pick me up I knew two things...my name was kitty boo and my daddy owned a cleaner, and I refused an offer of an ice cream cone, so they knew it was serious! ...from that information they found out where I belonged

When they dropped me off at the cleaners, they told my mom not to punish me, cause they felt I had learned my lesson (having refused the ice cream cone) and my mother said she watched me running home, my feet hitting my backside as I ran!

[joshcryer]

20. Heh, my youngest brother burned down a clubhouse we built out of fabric and leaves.

Pissed we didn't let him in so he took gasoline for the lawn mower, poured it everywhere, and lit it up. We were using leaves for "insulation." It was the most flamable thing in the history of anything. It went up so quick the fire department was utterly blown away, heh.

[Duer 157099]

37. That is one badass. "walking on Route 388, carrying the blowtorch and wearing only a T-shirt"

We need an appropriate graphic. I'm thinking of that bounty hunter in Raising Arizona, when he was a kid.