A 12-year-old boy from Texas lit up the Christmas for his whole family when he accidentally set his front lawn aflame with a magnifying glass he got as a present from his parents.
Cayden's mom and dad posted the whole goof-up on Facebook and gave a description of how things got to this point. The unintentional arson ensued after the overenthusiastic pre-teen and his two brothers went outside the house fiddling around with their prized magnifying glass.
"We discovered he and his two brothers went out on the driveway and burned a couple of holes in some paper". "Everything was under control until the boys came running into the house telling us that a corner of the lawn was on fire and the Christmas lights were melting!" wrote Nissa-Lynn Parson, Cayden's mother.
The Facebook photos and a video showed the couple working hard to douse the burning front yard, reported the New York Post.
"Justin and I rushed outside to see the entire front lawn turning black!" Parson wrote. "We grabbed buckets, Justin turned the sprinklers on, and I grabbed blankets to smother and trap it - before it could spread any more into the neighbour's yard! What a sight to see - a bunch of people running around crazy trying to put a front lawn fire out while wearing matching Christmas jammies!"
Justin Parson, the father of the three siblings told the local FOX 4 media outlet that Cayden was overjoyed when he unwrapped his gift and found out that he got a magnifying glass as a Christmas present.
"He opens the magnifying glass and goes, 'Yay, a magnifying glass,'" he said. "The other son in the background, 'Yay, now we can light stuff on fire.' And we're like, 'Oh dear.'"
It was bright and sunny on the day of the incident and Cayden along with his older sibling Ashton got straight at work and angled the magnifying glass on some newspaper kept at the porch.
When the newspaper caught fire the two boys pcked and Ashton threw the piece of paper on the lawn.
The fire spread through the area really quick and the kids ran into the house pcking and screaming.
According to Ashton, "the smoke was getting like as high as the tree."
Cayden said that he "just wanted to start a little fire," but in the future, he would refrain from carrying out such risky shengans.
Luckily the family was left unscathed by the whole incident, but according to the mother, the boys will be spending a good amount of time in heavy household chores.
"They will definitely have yard work to do once spring comes."
( With inputs from ANI )