Boy praised as hero may have set fire

GRESHAM, Ore. – Days after he was praised as a hero for helping a family escape a burning apartment, a 12-year-old has been identified as one of the boys who may have started the blaze.

Fire officials initially thought an electrical short caused the Christmas Eve fire in a Gresham apartment.

Now investigators say it was children playing with matches.

Gresham Fire Marshal Gus Lian said Wednesday that the 12-year-old’s mother and the woman who lived in the apartment with her three boys had each agreed to put one of their children in a treatment program for fire-starters.

Lian said federal health regulations prevented him from disclosing identities of the children referred to the program.

Neither child admitted starting the fire.

“We know exactly what happened,” Lian told the Oregonian newspaper.

“What we don’t know is which of the kids set the fire.”

The 12-year-old, who lived in a neighboring apartment, was spending the night with the other family when the fire broke out.

Initially, he was credited with rescuing four people.

Lian, however, said the boy’s post-fire actions were not that heroic.

“(He) broke a window and got himself out,” Lian said, before leaning back through a window to pull another child out.