A Utah wildfire that's already burned more than one square mile of land was started by a man who was trying to kill a spider with his lighter, authorities say.
Cory Allan Martin, 26, was taken into custody on Tuesday, one day after he tried to burn a spider he encountered while hiking in the foothills near Springville, the Utah County Sheriff's Office reports. Although Martin reportedly confessed to accidentally starting the blaze, he didn't offer a reason for wanting to burn the spider, a sheriff's report reveals. "What led him to stop and notice a spider and decide to try to burn it, we don’t know," says Sheriff's Sergeant Spencer Cannon. "There may not be a why. He might not even know a why."
Martin, who's facing charges of reckless burn and marijuana possession, is being held on a $2,000 bond, arrest records reveal. Meanwhile, firefighters on Tuesday continued battling the blaze he inadvertently started.
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