CANTON - A 5-year-old boy playing with a lighter set a foam mattress on fire Saturday morning, causing black smoke to fill the second floor of his home.
City Battalion Chief Ray Harple said the boy and his mother, Rickeeta Richardson, were not injured. Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority, which owns the home at 1407 Freed Ct. SE, was securing the house, he said.
The family was going to stay with a relative. Harple estimated that the 11:40 a.m. fire caused about $4,000 damage to the structure and $1,000 damage to the contents.
The boy will be referred to the fire prevention bureau’s fire setter program, which teaches youth fire safety, Harple said.