The burning marks on the folded quilts are clearly the ignition points of arson. The mystery behind "more than 29 spontaneous combustions in a farmer's home over ten days" has been revealed: the arsonist is a 10-year-old boy. Firefighting and public security departments have invited psychological consultants to help unravel the child's mental "knots."
Key Points:
The Wang Shilong family in Houzhuang Village, Dunfangdian Township, Weihui City, experienced 29 consecutive "spontaneous combustion" incidents. Due to unclear reasons, the family was restless day and night, and villagers were also speculating. Some suspected it was "strange fire" (as reported in our newspaper on February 13, A08 edition, "More than 29 spontaneous combustions in a farmer's home over ten days"). Yesterday, fire investigation experts from the provincial fire headquarters went to Weihui for an on-site investigation, and our reporter followed up on the interview.
At the scene, after a comprehensive inspection and analysis, the experts revealed the truth: the series of fires were not caused by biogas, phosphorus, or unknown powders, but by a 10-year-old boy...
He did it?
Wang Shilong's home in Houzhuang Village, Dunfangdian Township, Weihui City, is located behind the famous Bigan Temple. Yesterday morning, when the fire investigation experts from the provincial fire headquarters arrived at Wang Shilong's home, relevant personnel from the Xinxiang City and Weihui City fire departments and the Weihui Public Security Bureau had already arrived, all hoping to uncover the mystery as soon as possible.
Phenomenon:
24-hour vigilance could not prevent the fires.
In Wang Shilong's courtyard, there was still some disorder. Inside the house, everything was in disarray. Clothes were piled everywhere in the living room, one east room had been emptied, and the ground still bore traces of cleaning. According to Wang Shilong, the most fires occurred in the east room. After the police and fire departments inspected the site, they required the cleaning of the house, furniture, and floor, the airing out of clothes, and the stacking of all burned items in the yard. A 9-year-old girl had her finger cut off by a skate blade at the rink.
A village cadre introduced that with Wang Shilong's home continuously catching fire, the villagers helped extinguish the flames multiple times. However, no one could explain the cause of the fires. In response, the village committee took this very seriously, assigning people to guard Wang Shilong's home 24 hours a day. But one night at around 1 o'clock, while Wang Shilong and his wife were drinking tea in the living room with two guards present, and the two children were awake, another fire broke out in the yard. It was the clothes that had been cleaned during the day and stacked on the doorstep that caught fire.
Fortunately, despite multiple fires at Wang Shilong's home, they were discovered in time and did not cause significant damage.
"Strange fire" chased the child to school
To find the cause of the fires, the police and fire departments installed surveillance cameras at Wang Shilong's home, with three cameras in total. "After installing the cameras, there haven't been any more fires," Wang Shilong said.
However, strangely, the fire seemed to follow Wang Shilong's son to school. There are four people in Wang Shilong's family: himself, his wife, and their two children. Their daughter is only 4 years old, and their son is 10 years old, studying in the fourth grade at a primary school in Weihui City, usually boarding there.
The little boy had only been back to school for a few days when strange things started happening. "The day before yesterday afternoon, his schoolbag caught fire; yesterday morning, the quilt on his bed caught fire," said an officer from the local police station.
Fires also occurred at Wang Shilong's father's and uncle's homes
Wang Shilong said that in recent days, besides his own home, fires also occurred at two other homes in the village. "One is my uncle's house, and the other is my child's grandfather's house."
In Wang Shilong's uncle's home, an east room in the courtyard had been completely destroyed by fire, the roof exposed to the sky, and the walls blackened. According to Wang Shilong's cousin Wang Shidong, on February 2, none of the adults were home. The two children from his own home and the two children from Wang Shilong's home were playing hide-and-seek when they noticed that the room was on fire. By the time the adults arrived, the fire had already spread. "We only managed to push out an electric bike; everything else was burned..." Wang Shidong said.
At Wang Shilong's father's home, about 200 meters away from Wang Shilong's home, Wang Shilong's mother said that a fire once occurred in the inner room, where a sweater in the wardrobe caught fire, almost setting the wardrobe itself alight.
Wang Shilong's wife and son were both at the grandfather's home. The little boy stood silently beside his mother, not uttering a word.
Conclusion:
Ruled out the possibility of spontaneous combustion, typical human-caused ignition
For each ignition point, the experts carefully examined every detail without missing anything; whether at Wang Shilong's home or his uncle's and father's homes, the experts carefully asked about the details of the fires while casually chatting: who was at home? Who first noticed the fire?
Right in the inner room of Wang Shilong's father's home, the fire investigation expert from the provincial fire headquarters pulled on the sleeve of a burnt autumn shirt to "explain on the spot": We have checked all the ignition points and burned items, and we can affirmatively say that this is absolutely not "strange fire," but rather a typical case of intentional ignition.
The experts analyzed that if the nearby biogas pool leakage was the cause, why would Wang Shilong's father's home, which is far away, also catch fire? Moreover, biogas is lighter than air, so if it leaks, it would rise upward. If it is in an open space, it would need to encounter an open flame and a continuous gas supply to ignite; if it is in a closed space, when it reaches a certain concentration, encountering an open flame would result in an explosion. Therefore, it cannot be biogas or other flammable gases causing the fire. Additionally, based on the types and characteristics of the fires, the possibility of phosphorus or unknown powders causing smoldering can be ruled out.
On the contrary, from the investigated situations, the ignition points were all not high; the ignited objects were all everyday items that are easy to ignite, such as plastic bags, woven bags, clothes, and brooms; the fire traces were all caused by external ignition.
"Did you see that helmet? Wasn't it the sponge inside that caught fire? This piece of clothing, wasn't it the sleeve that was lit...?" The analysis was like a vivid fire investigation class, and everyone nodded frequently.
Progress:
Inviting psychological consultants to help the child resolve their "knots"
After carefully examining the backpack and quilt retrieved from the school, the experts determined: these burn marks were entirely caused by external ignition.
Although the child was previously suspected, due to the insistence of the Wang family, the focus was not concentrated on him. Now, considering the fire space, fire time, fire characteristics, and people present during the fire... After a comprehensive analysis, without much explanation from the experts, everyone unanimously "locked onto" the 10-year-old boy from the Wang family as the arsonist. Various pieces of evidence provided by the fire and public security personnel who had repeatedly examined the scene fully supported this conclusion.
Although the mystery has been uncovered, why would a 10-year-old child repeatedly start fires at home? How should this issue be handled so that the child is not harmed? Yesterday, the fire and public security departments were very cautious. They learned through conversations with Wang Shilong and his wife that the child was very smart but also very mischievous. He didn't perform well on the final exam last semester and received many beatings. At the beginning of this semester, the little guy got into conflicts with classmates at school. "Is a 10-year-old child, who has been boarding for a long time, psychologically maladjusted?" someone worriedly raised the question.
Yesterday, the Weihui City Fire Brigade and the Weihui Public Security Bureau invited psychological consultants to help the 10-year-old boy resolve his psychological knots. At the same time, they also helped Wang Shilong and his wife reflect on how to better educate their child.
Revelation:
There is never any strange fire, only fires with causes yet to be determined
Repeated unexplained "spontaneous combustions" at home without finding the cause, such "strange fire" incidents are not the first time.
Yesterday, the fire investigation expert from the provincial fire headquarters introduced that similar "strange fire" incidents occurred in a small mountain village in Xinmi in 2006 and in a farmer's home in Shangcai County in 2008.
These several "strange fire" incidents were extremely similar: they only occurred in their own homes or among direct relatives' homes; when the fires occurred, there were mostly people at home, and the fire losses were not significant; the igniters all had "intentions," either wanting to attract attention or wanting to achieve a certain purpose.
"Therefore, one must believe in science. There is never any strange fire, only fires with causes yet to be determined," the expert said.