When I was 9, living in Yokosuka, Japan, I light a field on fire because I was shooting smoke bombs over a road using a slingshot, and they would leave a cool trail of red, green, or yellow smoke as I shot them. Unfortunately, they also spit a steady steam of sparks, and when it landed in the playground across the street, it set the dry grass on fire and they had to call the Fire Department.
I huddled in terror all day in my room, waiting for the Shore Patrol to come pick me up and bring me to the brig.
Then, when we moved back to the states, my dad was XO on a small communication station, and me and a friend were playing with matches in a dry field (I know) and a small fire got out of control. My friend ran, but I couldn’t because my glasses had fallen off, so I grabbed him by the back of his jacket which he slithered out of...I used his jacket to try to put the flames out, but the Fire Department came down, and the base guard took me over to see my dad at work.
My poor dad. He looked at me like I was an alien.
Sigh. Not like he didn’t have other things to do.
I understand no jail time. Meaningful and time consuming Community service would have been far better than a stupid $36 million fine. Dumb kid. But it wasn’t deliberate arson from what the article said...just a stupid kid doing stupid kid things.
OK......
One christmas several of us neighborhood boys got bows and arrows fr christmas. We went to the former golf course to shoot them
After lunch the others went back and sharetakers chicken. they took it into a patch of woods and built aa fire to cook it. They set the woods on fire .
There but for the Grace of God go I