An attempt to kill a spider by lighting it on fire damaged a Northern California apartment Sunday when the burning spider crawled onto a mattress, which then caught on fire.
A resident of the apartment used a torch lighter to burn the spider, but ended up causing $11,000 in damage to the Redding, California, apartment after the fire spread to a mattress, drapes, and a closet, the Record Searchlight reported.
Lyndsey Wisegarver, a caregiver to one of the men living in the apartment, said a huge wolf spider continued crawling after it was lit on fire, causing the fire to spread. The residents attempted to extinguish the fire with a garden hose but it spread too quickly, officials said, the Searchlight reported.
Firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading to other apartments, and all the residents in the building escaped unharmed, the Searchlight reported.
Wisegarver and the two men living in the fire-damaged apartment will have to find a new place to live because their apartment is now uninhabitable. Smoke and fire also damaged many of the residents’ belongings.
Wisegarver said the men had been talking for some time about moving out of the apartment prior to the fire.
“We’ll make it work,” she said, the Searchlight reported.
Wolf spiders can grow to the size of a person’s hand in some cases, though they are often smaller. The species does bite and the venom can be dangerous to humans, but is usually not fatal.
Many on Twitter could relate to the urge to destroy the spider by any means necessary, though some lobbied for capture and release.
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