A fire broke out in Springville, Utah, about an hour southeast of Salt Lake City, after a man supposedly tried to light a spider on fire.
Police say that around 4:43 p.m. local time on Monday, they received a call about “a mountainside fire.” When they arrived on the scene at around 5 p.m., they spotted a man walking his dog near where the fire was started.
When officials from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office approached 26-year-old Cory Allan Martin, he supposedly admitted to them that he’d accidentally sparked some brush when he was trying to light a spider on fire with a lighter.
The small brush fire then spread quickly and covered about 60 acres. Two helicopters, one of which carried water from an area reservoir, attempted to battle the flames from the air, while fire fighters attempted to douse them from the ground.
Luckily, around 9 p.m., a strong storm moved into the area, helping fire personnel bring the blaze under control. As of Tuesday afternoon, the fire is reported to be 90 percent contained.
Meanwhile, authorities are still puzzled about why someone would try to light a spider on fire.
“Not sure exactly why he felt the need to have to burn the spider,” Sgt. Spencer Cannon said. “But you know, all the regret in the world doesn’t change the outcome based on whatever reason there was for him doing that.”
“In this case, his actions were more than, ‘Oops, I accidentally started a fire,’” Cannon continued. “It was reckless to do what he was doing in the way he was doing it.”
“I’m not sure why he felt the need to burn the spider,” Cannon repeated once again.
Even Governor Spencer Cox weighed in on the arrest. “Um, don’t do drugs kids (and don’t start spiders on fire during a drought),” he tweeted on Monday night.
When they arrested Martin, police supposedly found marijuana and drug paraphernalia in his possession. He has been booked in the Utah County Jail and charged with drug possession and reckless burning. In the state of Utah, reckless burning carries a possible sentence of a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, no one was injured in the fire and no structures were threatened by it.