Fire up that cell phone…oops

Check out this juicy story from our Buzzblog editor Paul McNamara: “Cell phone sparks fire that leaves California man severely burned”: Variations of this headline have been all over the Internet, as well as TV and radio news this week, but all of these reports have been missing two vital facts, only one of which I am able to reveal here. Although a cell phone was indeed the source of ignition in a residential hotel fire that left Luis Picaso, 59, in critical condition with burns over half his body, the primary cause of the fire was not the phone but instead Picaso’s intoxicated state, according to the Vallejo Fire Department’s on-scene investigator. “I don’t believe it was the phone that was the problem,” says William Tweedy, the investigator and the fire department’s public information officer. “The phone was the ignition source, but … the owner was intoxicated.”