CHILD STARTS FIRE

An 8-year-old boy with a lighter and piece of paper caught his family's home on fire Saturday afternoon.

The youngster, Joshua Simmons, had first- and second-degree burns to his face and was taken to Southeast Missouri Hospital for treatment.

Cape Girardeau Fire Capt. Robert Kembell said the boy was playing outside his home at 1536 Independence with the lighter and set a piece of paper on fire. The fire spread from the paper to the side of the house.

The fire call was received at 1:10 p.m., and trucks were on the scene at 1:12. When firefighters arrived, flames were shooting from the rear of the home. About 25 percent of the back of the house was on fire, Kembell said.

The boy's grandmother and 6-year-old sister were also home at the time of the fire. Neither was injured.

"He was burned across his cheeks," said the boy's grandmother, Mary Belle Bradshaw of Whitewater. Bradshaw was baby-sitting the two children while their mother was working.

The fire spread across the top of the back room, causing damage to the roof and heavy heat and smoke damage to the back room. The rest of the house had some smoke damage.

The heat of the fire also caused windows in the back room to break, and the fire had just started inside the house when firefighters arrived.

Kembell said the flames were extinguished quickly and most of the fire was on the outside of the house.

Bradshaw said she was inside the home reading when the fire broke out. Earlier in the day, she had taken a lighter away from the boy when he tried to start a fire outside.

This time, she didn't see him playing with the lighter.

"I didn't smell anything," she said.