Kids TP Home, Which Leads to It ... Burning Down

Cheryl Crausewell tried to burn some lingering bits out of a tree
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 21, 2014 7:27 AM CST
Kids TP Home, Which Leads to It ... Burning Down
The fire in Dora, Alabama.   (Fox 6 screenshot)

Toilet-papering a house is just a harmless teen prank, right? For one family in Dora, Ala., not so much. The first part of the story is fairly rote: Neighborhood kids TP Cheryl Crausewell's house of a dozen years over the weekend, doing a number on her yard and magnolia tree. Yesterday afternoon she and her son cleaned up most of the mess, but couldn't get some of the paper out of the tree. Their not-recommended idea: to light a piece of the stuck paper with a lighter.

Instead of ridding the tree of it, the burning piece flew into the yard and set the lawn on fire, reports Fox 6. "We tried to put it out and it just kept going," she says. The grass fire then tore into the backyard, where it likely met with her grill's propane tank, says Crausewell. They ultimately lost their home. Crausewell's mother, her elderly aunt, and her aunt's caregiver were all able to safely exit the home, and the family says they will rebuild on the same plot. (This actually isn't the worst TPing story we've reported.)

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