"No One Likes A Butt Head"
Biloxi, MS Sun Herald, January 20, 1999
Biloxi, MS, firefighters are investigating whether a bird caused a fire this week that spread over several acres in the town. Biloxi Fire Dept. Battalion Chief Wallace Powell: "It could've been started by a bird that picked up a lighted cigarette and dropped it. I've seen it happen before. A bird brought a cigarette to its nest, and a fire started.
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Calif. Brush Fire Enters Second Day As Winds Abate
Thursday January 4, 2001
ALPINE, Calif. (Reuters) - A cigarette thrown from a car window by a careless smoker may have sparked a brush fire that forced hundreds of evacuations and hopscotched across 11,000 rural acres near San Diego this week, officials said on Thursday. "It was some kind of smoking material and we're pretty sure it was a cigarette," said Laura Lowes, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry. The incident is still under investigation, a San Diego Sheriff's spokeswoman said.
Efforts to control the fire appeared to be paying off as the fierce winds that had fueled the blaze abated. By Thursday afternoon the fire was about 15 percent contained, as warm Santa Ana winds that raged at speeds up to 65 mph on Wednesday died down to a tamer 15 mph, Lowes said. Meanwhile, San Diego residents headed home from work on Thursday under a nut brown sky amid acrid air and chunks of falling ash, as weary rescue workers braved thick, black smoke to battle the blaze as it roiled the sparsely populated, mountainous area about 30 miles north of the city.
