I smell a rat: You decide which mammal has the bigger brain.
Two fires involving rats. But only one can be blamed on the four legged creature.
The first one is in the UK and comes to us via Echo:
About 30 people were evacuated and a couple left homeless after a rat gnawed through electrical wires in a loft.
Firefighters were called to a first floor flat in Presidents Court, Hoover Drive, Laindon, after a rodent bit through a light cable which sparked the fire.
The crews evacuated the residents before dousing the flames within 20 minutes.
The couple who live in the flat, smelled smoke and escaped unharmed, but were forced to stay with friends due to the amount of smoke damage.
Firefighters found rodent droppings and parts of a chewed electrical cable in the loft space, following the blaze, which broke out at about 1.30am on Friday.
Fire number two did $30,000 in damage to a house in Brevard County, Florida. The image above and the story below are from WFTV-TV:
David Stanifer was inside a home on Friars Court in Brevard County when a fire started early Monday morning. He and two other people were chasing a rat around the house.
“They told us they were playing with their pet mouse or rat and they tied a ribbon to it and they were cutting a ribbon with the lighter,” said Lieutenant Teresa Uzel of the Brevard County Fire Rescue.
Firefighters said that the three residents tried to cut the ribbon, but it caught fire. The rat started to run all around the garage, starting small fires.
“This is a first time. It’s a believable story because things happen, but this is a first with a rat,” Uzel said.
The residents tried putting the fire out, but were unsuccessful. More than a dozen firefighters responded to help fight the blaze.
“This is my parent’s house. My dad’s not here right now, he’s in Africa on a mission trip and my mom works most of the time. We can’t get a hold of her,” said resident David Stanifer.
