Girl at Play Starts Apartment Blaze

ORANGE —  A 12-year-old girl who was playing with matches in bed started a two-alarm fire that destroyed her bedroom and much of her family’s apartment, fire officials said.

The child, who was not identified, accidentally set her bed on fire about 11 p.m. Wednesday in an apartment in the 800 block of North Olive Street, said Capt. Dave Smith of the Orange Fire Department.

“She tried to extinguish the fire herself, but failed to do so and ran out to a neighbor, who called the fire department,” Smith said.

By the time firefighters arrived, the blaze had engulfed the bedroom and burned most of the roof above the apartment, Smith said. Another bedroom was almost destroyed, and three other rooms in the apartment suffered heat and smoke damage.

The other three apartments in the four-unit building sustained water damage, Smith said.