Paul Sheriff of Leasingham, Lincolnshire, in England has just found out how the fire that burned down his shop to the tune of £250,000 worth of damage was started... and it’s a little hard for him to believe.

 

It seems that after weeks of investigations, his insurance company finally found the root of the blaze. They have blamed it on a smoking sparrow . Yes, as in the little bird.

 

The sparrow had apparently been building a nest close in the eaves of Sheriff’s village store and was lining the home with the usual things such as twigs, but also had a fondness for cigarette butts thrown that had been thrown on the ground.

 

You probably know what’s coming next. The sparrow happened to pick up a cigarette butt that was still smouldering and flew it back to the nest.

 

Sheriff was fortunate enough to escape the March 9th fire as a customer alerted him to the blaze. When all was said and done, the shop roof and recently-decorated upstairs flat had been burned beyond repair.

Initial investigations by the fire department into the cause of the fire found no gas or electrical faults, but eventually 35 cigarette butts were discovered in various sparrows' nests in the eaves of the shop roof.
 
After a few weeks, an AXA insurance forensic investigator came to the conclusion that a sparrow had taken the cigarettes up to the roof.

 

Sheriff eventually cleaned up the mess and just recently reopened his shop. The question is though, does he still sell cigarettes?