UPDATE ON STORY BELOW

Dry conditions throughout the region have resulted in numerous grass fires and several structure fires in recent weeks.

On Saturday, a Fort Sumner man’s home fell victim to a mouse fire.

Luciano Mares uses a garden hose to help the Fort Sumner Fire Department extinguish a fire Saturday at his house at 1137 Grove Street. Mares said he inadvertently started the fire when he tried to burn a mouse. (Staff photo: Andrew Chavez)

Homeowner Luciano Mares said he caught a mouse inside his residence and discarded the creature in a pile of garden refuse he was burning on his property near the home.

“I had some leaves burning outside, so I threw it in the fire, and the mouse was on fire and ran back at the house,” he said.

All contents of the wooden home were destroyed, according to village Fire Chief Juan Chavez. Aside from the mouse, no injuries were reported.

Chavez said the fiery mouse ran from the burning leaves to below a window of the home. The fire spread up the window and throughout the house, he said.

A neighbor reported the fire to authorities. Fire and smoke were spewing out of the attic and the 81-year-old homeowner was trying to extinguish the blaze with a garden hose when firefighters arrived at the Grove Street home, Chavez said.

Three fire trucks and 13 firefighters from two departments had the fire out within two hours, Chavez said.

Now staying at a Fort Sumner motel, Mares said he had a problem with pesky mice coming into his home through little cracks.

“They had been coming into the house. Some were barely babies. I set some traps out and I caught one,” Mares said. Then he the threw the mini intruder into a pile of burning vegetation.

Because of the area’s windy and dry conditions, Chavez cautioned against burning leaves, as well as attempting to dispose of mice in the way Mares had.

“I’ve seen numerous house fires,” village Fire Department Capt. Jim Lyssy said, “but nothing as unique as this one.”

UPDATE ON STORY

Flaming Mouse Story Doused
Rumor Squashed: Flaming Mouse Didn't Start House Fire

POSTED: January 10, 2006

FORT SUMNER, N.M. -- A small town rumor that sparked world wide interest about a mouse burning down a house has been found to be untrue.

After 81-year-old Chano Mares's house burned down Saturday in Fort Sumner, news services picked up the quirky story.

"Flaming Mouse Burns Down House" read the headline over an Associated Press story that appeared on TheNewMexicoChannel.com, for example.

According to the initial report, Mares threw the critter in a pile of burning leaves near his home, but it ran back to the house on fire.

A local firefighter said the mouse ran to just beneath a window and the flames spread up the window and throughout the house.

All contents of the home were destroyed, but no one was injured.

Interest in fires has been high lately. Unseasonably dry and windy conditions have charred more than 53,000 acres and destroyed 10 homes in southeastern New Mexico in recent weeks.

The mouse story, however, has been doused by Mares.

"It's really humorous more than anything that a mouse burned down the house," he told KOAT-TV. Thing is, the mouse was dead when it hit the burning leaves.

Mares said he trapped and killed the critter and tossed it on the fire.

The flames, he said, probably reached his house because they were driven by high winds.

Capt. Jim Lyssy of the Fort Sumner Fire Department said the rumor probably got started because there was "a little too much excitement" at the time of the fire.

Mares lost everything -- and has no insurance -- but the mouse story still makes him smile.

"I started laughing, and I'll be laughing from now on," he said. "It's silly."