RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Tenant Starts Apartment fire Trying To Kill Bedbugs

A fire started in an apartment as the tenant used a cigarette lighter to chase bed bugs, police told 24 Hour News 8.

No one was injured and the blaze was contained to a bedroom, which sustained fire, smoke and water damage.

The fire was in a second-floor residence at Fox Ridge Apartments, 1400 Alamo Hills Dr. in Kalamazoo.

Members of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety were dispatched around 6:35 p.m. Thursday and evacuated the building. They then extinguished the flames in 15 minutes.

The resident admitted to starting the fire and tried using a fire extinguisher but had to evacuate as the fire spread.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Tenant Tries to Kill Bed Bugs, Starts Fire

OH: Union Township firefighters responded to an apartment complex in Mt. Carmel this weekend after a tenant tried to kill bed bugs with rubbing alcohol.

The call came at around 5 p.m. Friday, January 21.

"The occupant was trying to self-exterminate bed bugs and was spraying the couch with rubbing alcohol while smoking a cigarette," Fire Chief Stan Deimling said.

Deimling said the occupant, who is not being named at this time, caught the couch on fire - destroying the couch and damaging the carpet. Firefighters also had to ventilate the fire through the window.

Deimling said the damage will probably cost about $600.

The occupant was transported to University Hospital for burns on his hands.

"As far as we're concerned, this is an accidental fire. The damage will be between the tenant and the landlord," Deimling said.

From Community Press

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA