NEWS INFORMATION FROM

THE OFFICE OF MAYOR STEPHEN R. REED
City of Harrisburg
King City Government Center
Harrisburg, PA 17101-1678
Telephone: 255.3040

FOR IMMEDIATE USE
8 April 2003

BIRD DID IT, FIRE INVESTIGATION SAYS

Harrisburg, PA—Mayor Stephen R. Reed today reported that a general alarm fire at 524 Schuykill Street on March 28 was caused by “careless use of smoking materials by a bird.”

“As incredible as it may sound, the evidence clearly indicates that this fire started when a bird, building a nest, picked-up and carried a lit cigarette into the nest, attempting to make it a part of the nest,” the Mayor said.

The fire started in the roof area of the structure’s second floor balcony, where there was a large bird’s nest. The cigarette ignited the nest. The fire smoldered and eventually extended to the balcony area, causing damage to the second floor bedroom and the balcony. There was also smoke damage to the second and third floors. The roof had to be cut open by firefighters to stop the fire’s spread, and it was covered over again by city firefighters after extinguishment. No one was injured, not even the birds.

The Mayor said “the cause of the fire is quite unusual but not unprecedented. It has happened before, but rarely. The point of all this is not to discard a lit cigarette. This is at least littering and if there are nearby birds building a nest, which they do more so in the Spring months because of egg laying, there is a chance the cigarette winds up in the nest.”

Reed said the fire’s cause created a stir amongst firefighters and police, with computer-enhanced images of a bird with a cigarette becoming the image of the day.

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