Smoldering mop leads to Warren house fire

WARREN — A Southwest Boulevard woman and her two children were left homeless Wednesday night by a “bizarre” house fire caused by a discarded cigarette.

Firefighters were called to the home of Tiajuana Lowery and her children, 1741 Southwest, at about 8:30 p.m. Firefighters put out the fire in the attic and kitchen of the single-family home.

The fire caused about $10,000 damage in those two areas. The family escaped unharmed.

Ken Nussle, Warren fire chief, said Lowery reported that she discarded a cigarette butt outside the home in the early afternoon Wednesday by throwing it at a garbage can — but missed. The cigarette apparently landed on the cloth part of a household mop on the ground next to the house. There it smoldered for several hours and moved upward along the exterior of the house, which was covered with aluminum siding, Nussle said.

The flame eventually moved through the soffit and into the attic. “It was bizarre,” Nussle said of the way the fire started.

The fire department called the American Red Cross to provide temporary shelter for the family.

Firefighters ruled the cause accidental, and Lowery faces no criminal charges, Nussle said.