14-Year-Old’s Water Pipe Blamed for Israeli Fire

[bemildred]

JERUSALEM — A 14-year-old boy was arrested on Monday as the prime suspect in starting the largest fire in Israel’s history, a four-day inferno that left 42 people dead, devoured 10,000 acres of forest and forced Israel to request international assistance.

A police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said the boy, from the Carmel area where the fire began, admitted under questioning that he had been smoking a tobacco water pipe, or narghila, and threw away a hot coal that set off the fire. He fled the scene, and without sounding any alert, went back to school, Mr. Rosenfeld said.

Two other minors who the police said were suspected of starting the fire by negligence — a 14- and 16-year-old from a Druse village in the same area — were released to house arrest on Monday. Relatives and their lawyer have denied they were involved in starting the blaze, and their connection to the third boy was unclear.

The fire, which broke out in the forested hills near Haifa in northern Israel on Thursday, was mostly extinguished by Sunday evening, with officials crediting assistance from an international fleet of more than 30 firefighting aircraft and the so-called Supertanker, the world’s largest fire-extinguishing plane.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/world/middleeast/07israel.html?src=mv

[here_is_to_hope]

1. That gets

G_d off the hook....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x339720

[bemildred]

2. The boy is simply G_d's instrument, as are we all. nt

[azurnoir]

3. that's a question on the MMPI ya know n/t

[bemildred]

4. MMPI? nt

[azurnoir]

6. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory n/t

[bemildred]

7. Sorry, I don't believe in that.

:-)

[azurnoir]

5. In a way I feel sorry for this kid, aldeit he should have reported the fire

immediately to say the least, he will suffer from guilt for the rest of his life

on a side note there was a major wildfire in CA last year where people also died, a 9 year old was found to the cause there was talk about prosecution of some type but I have not seen any follow up on that

[bemildred]

8. I'm sure if he could have smoked safely at home, this would not have happened.

So it's really all the Drug War's fault.

But yeah, he's just a kid. We had a 35,000 acre fire in the mountains here, started by some hikers that were trying to burn their TP, you know: "leave no trace."

[azurnoir]

9. That's one heck of a carbon footprint n/t

[bemildred]

12. Yeah, that's what I thought. But it's grown back a lot.

Never going to the the same though.

[shaayecanaan]

10. It was probably good old fashioned patriotic tobacco in his hookah

and not that filthy subversive hippy junk. So one can't blame the drug war for that. It is just the inherent cost of freedom I suppose.

[bemildred]

11. Maybe so, I did that with cigarettes when I was a kid, sneaking one to see

what it was like. But you are ruining my drug war rant, you're no fun.

[azurnoir]

13. yup I am told by one who is quite familiar with both "territories"

that the hippy junk will completely "gum up" a good hookah, so best to stick with the sheesha and not ruin your pipe

[shaayecanaan]

14. Ive heard that too but I'm buggered if I know why...

A hookah is basically a bong with a bit of tubing, dunno why it would work in one but not the other.

[azurnoir]

15. skinnier , longer tubing and more resinous maybe ? n/t