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Mistaking lighters for toys has proved to be deadly: on September 25, 2007, 15-month-old Peyton Edwards and 2-year-old Breydon Edwards of Russellville, Arkansas, died after setting fire to their apartment with a motorcycle-shaped lighter.
Shane St. Pierre was in grocery store in Livermore, Maine, last June with his mother buying sandwiches. Thinking it might be a flashlight, the 6-year-old picked up a miniature baseball bat and flicked the switch. A flame shot out, singeing his eyebrow and burning part of his face. His father, Norm St. Pierre, a fire chief in nearby West Paris, became an advocate for a ban on toylike and novelty lighters. Maine passed a ban on toylike lighters on March 14, 2008.
Children are not the only ones fooled by novelty lighters. Beaverton, Michigan, resident Laura Fowler purchased a novelty lighter for her 4-year-old child after mistaking it for a toy. In 2006, a South Carolina woman shot herself in the hand while attempting to light a cigarette with what she thought was a pistol-shaped novelty lighter.
A fire marshal in Wisconsin was making a purchase at a local home improvement store when his 12-year-old daughter picked up what she believed was a tape measure. When she clicked the button on the tape measure, a flame came out. Fortunately, the child was not hurt, and the store owner voluntarily stopped selling the lighters.
In North Carolina, a 6-year-old boy sustained second-degree burns after playing with a lighter that looked like a toy cell phone. In Maryland, playground equipment was set on fire by three 5-year-old girls using a gun-shaped lighter. In Oregon, one child died and another was permanently brain damaged after a 6-year-old, playing with a lighter that looked like a toy dolphin, started a fire. In another incident, a mother was severely burned after her child, playing with a lighter that resembled a Christmas tree, ignited the mother's bed.
Toylike and Novelty Lighter Legislation
Some local and State governments are taking action by banning the sale of toylike and novelty lighters, and limiting their distribution. Maine was the first State to pass a ban on toylike and novelty lighters, passing the legislation on March 14, 2008. Tennessee also passed a ban, in April 2008. Other states considering bans are Alabama, Connecticut, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, and Vermont. In addition to state bans and restrictions on the sale of toylike and novelty lighters, numerous local jurisdictions have passed ordinances. These include more than 19 jurisdictions in Arkansas, another 6 in California, and Yakima County in Washington State.
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