
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 5, 1994                   TAG: 9410050114
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SARAH HUNTLEY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CHILD SETS HOME ABLAZE WITH LIGHTER

A Salem family was treated for smoke inhalation at Lewis-Gale Hospital on Tuesday morning after a 4-year-old boy, who was playing with a cigarette lighter, started a blaze in his home.

The child was unattended in the living room, flicking the lighter, when his blanket caught on fire, Assistant Fire Chief Pat Counts said. The boy's parents, Tim and Tonya Muterspaugh, were in the bedroom at the time, he said. They phoned the Fire Department around 8:30 a.m.

Two engines were dispatched to the duplex apartment building at 820 Florida St. to handle the fire, which was brought under control quickly, Counts said. The boy, his parents and his 3-year-old sibling were taken to the emergency room.

This was the third fire in less than a month attributed to children playing with matches or lighters in the Roanoke Valley.

"We see it all too often," Counts said.

by CNB