12-year-old playing with lighter accidentally burns Kennewick neighbor’s garage

A 12-year-old experimenting with fire started a Sunday afternoon blaze that spread to a neighbor’s garage.

The youth was using a lighter and setting leaves and pieces of paper in a backyard near 40 N. Kent St. when the flames started some nearby grasses on fire, Fire Chief Chad Michael told the Herald.

Fire officials were told that the boy’s mother was at work, and he was being watched by his grandparents.

Sustained winds as high as 26 mph then pushed the fire into a wood pile next to a fence before it jumped to a garage on a neighboring property.

Firefighters were called just after 12:45 p.m. and found the small unattached garage burning. They were able to put out the fire within a few minutes.

The Kennewick Fire Department encourages parents to talk with their kids about potential fire dangers.

The National Fire Protection Association offered some tips for how to keep children safe from fire:

▪ Keep matches and lighters up high, preferably in a locked cabinet.

▪ Explain that fire moves very fast.

▪ Talk with children about what their friends and other children are doing with fire and how they are seeing it used online, on TV, movies and in video games.

▪ Establish clear rules and consequences for using fire while not being supervised. Praise them for respecting and showing responsible behavior.

▪ Young children are often curious about fire, play with fire trucks and pretend to cook. The association said these are great moments to teach them about fire safety.