Ahhhhh, So That’s What You Mean By Consequences
Up between Texas and Arkansas is a place called Liberty Eylua, Texas. I’m not saying this is the geographic center of batcrap crazy in Texas and dangerously close to Arkansas, but …. oh hell, never mind, it probably is.
A bizarre chain of events led to a massive blaze that completely burned down one home and damaged another on Wednesday night in Bowie County.
The fire chief explained how things went tragically wrong moments after the homeowner made a quick decision after a frightening discovery.
“While cleaning up, she saw a snake, threw gasoline on the snake, and lit the snake on fire,” said Deputy Randall Baggett of the Bowie County Sheriff’s Office. “And the snake went into the brush pile and the brush pile caught the home on fire.
It was not immediate clear whether any charges will be filed.
A neighboring home was also damaged by the fire.
I suspect it seemed like a good idea at the time. The upside is that the fire did $42,000 worth of improvements on the house.
Thanks to Carol Ann for the heads up.
As they say about crazy people in the South, “Bless their hearts!”
1That would be the combined school districts of Liberty/Eylau (pronounced Eellow like allow but with an eee), not far from Texarkana. And you think it’s bad in Richmond!
2I’m no fan of home insurance companies, but it would be hard to blame her insurer for adding a “homeowner stupidity” exclusion to her policy. This is a candidate for one of those Allstate “mayhem” commercials.
3Inquiring minds want to know, what happened snake? The innocent snake that will no doubt be demonized in this Sunday’s sermons throughout the Liberty Eylua metropolitan area. Snakes. Hell-fire. Woman cast from her own personal Eden (because of snake). I’m sure pastors, priests, etc can work an apple in somehow, even if it’s just that the homeowner called the fire department on her iPhone.
4I saw the map the TV station showed to pinpoint the town and said to myself “Ah, yes, East Texas. Where else?”
5Brilliant. Did she eat cooked snake?
6You can’t make this stuff up!
7Personally I think it was just a karma payback for what she did to the snake.
8I’m curious as to what kind of a yard someone keeps where it’s evidently more convenient to get gasoline and then something to set a fire than it is to find a stick.
9There’s no shortage of stupidity.
10Huh?????
11Corinne, I hear it tastes like chicken!
12Didn’t Glen Beck report that the snake was a former ACORN employee?
13Sorry but this story just makes much more sense without the snake as with it.
14She set the poor thing on fire?!? Why wasn’t she packing her sidearm? I don’t get it.
15Bless her heart. Snakes ARE good to eat but you need one snake per person and somebody with a big grubbing hoe to lop its head off and bury it. The head, not the snake. Then you peel the skin off and nail it to the side of the garage to dry out to use for a hatband. I betcha she din’t know all that, and I DID NOT make that up. I done done it a long time ago. I also did not start a fire when I did it. I also did not pass the collection plate.
16What kind of Texan tries to burn a snake instead of shooting it?
17When I reported about the time my husband was using a line trimmer near my mother’s house and a rattler climbed up the bushes and…it’s a long story involving a hoe, a broken window, and a snake escaping back under the house…some idiot said we should pour gasoline down the hole the snake used and “smoke it out.”
I pointed out that the snake was *under the house* and the house had a propane fired hot water heater. The person still didn’t get it until I said “What happens when you light gasoline under a propane source?” Oh. Light dawned as slowly as on a cloudy day in winter.
So it’s not just East Texas. Alas.
18I suggest the authorities check the inside of the house thoroughly for Bubba.
19Shovels were created to move dirt, plant plants and dispatch poisonous snakes and any other garden varmints as necessary. Gasoline is for the lawnmower. Good grief!
20There’s a Sunday parable in there somewhere, what with the burning trash (think bush) and the slithering snake (think you know who).
21Just not sure who the fire chief represents. (Can’t be Him can it?)
Aggieland Liz … actually, if positioned properly, a gasoline lawnmower will promptly dispatch a snake in its path … it could get messy! LOL
22thunka-thunka-thunka-THUMP! You’re right Marcia, I forgot about that. A shovel is much more low-tech!
23We have a pine ranch in that part of East Texas, like the avacado ranches folks have in California, and arson there is called “East Texas lighting.” In fact, there you seldom see a vacant house on the market for more than few months. I’m afraid some of the locals are gong to adopt this means of disposing of unwanted houses and start igniting all kinds of little critters. Those tend to be the same people who vote Republican and espouse “strict morality” and “law and order.”
24You guys are making me glad that I escaped to Eureka Springs, AR, which, like Austin, is the only Blue dot on an otherwise Red state.
25