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Arson Awareness Week aims to extinguish toy-like cigarette lighters 

LYNN - One day last June, 6-year-old Shane St. Pierre was browsing with his mother in a Livermore, Maine grocery store, while waiting for their sandwich order. The boy was naturally drawn to what he thought was a stack of miniature baseball bats near the cash register. Unaware that the devices were actually novelty cigarette lighters, the boy flicked the trigger and in a second his eyebrows were singed, his face burned.

The boy's father, Norm St. Pierre, a fire chief in nearby West Paris, was so disturbed by the incident he joined other advocates to ensure that toy-like lighters were banned in Maine, effective March 14, 2008. Tennessee officials followed suit in April, and bans are under consideration in Alabama, Connecticut, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Vermont.

Fire safety officials say the frequency of such incidents is on the rise, which is why toy-like lighters are the focus of this year's Arson Awareness Week in Massachusetts. State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan is urging parents, guardians and caregivers to protect themselves and their children from the dangers posed by these devices.

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