Fire In Torres del Paine NP. Photo: AFP

Authorities in Chile have accused Rotem Singer, an Israeli hiker, of accidentally starting a fire in a national park by not completely extinguishing toilet paper that he had burned. The fire in Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park has burned about 27,000 acres which is four percent of the total area of the park.

The hiker’s father, Yehezkel Singer, said his son was more than a kilometer away from the fire and the authorities who interrogated him did not speak English and Rotem does not speak Spanish, so there may have been confusion during the interrogation.

Mandi Gisser, a friend of Rotem, said Rotem burned the toilet paper because park managers request that hikers leave nothing behind. She said he is certain the toilet paper was not burning when he left it. Gisser said some locals tried to attack the Israelis as they were leaving the courthouse where Rotem’s hearing was held.

On August 30, 2011 we wrote an article about a person that admitted accidentally starting a fire in New Mexico by burning toilet paper. People who commented on the article submitted several other examples of toilet paper caused fires.
Thanks go out to Dick