Man's flaming mouse story questioned

[emad]

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (AP) -- Was it really a mouse that burned down Luciano Mares' house? Or was it just the wind?

Mares' story of a flaming mouse that scampered from a burning pile of leaves into his rural home Saturday drew international media attention. Then on Monday, the 81-year-old told an Albuquerque television station that strong wind spread burning leaves, leveling his home of more than two decades.

But on Tuesday, Mares and his nephew stood by his original version that a mouse was the culprit.

"That dang mouse crawled in there," Mares said in a telephone interview from a motel in Fort Sumner, where he is staying with his nephew. "I have an awful hate for those critters."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/10/mouse.fire.ap/index.html