{"id":53069,"date":"2022-04-25T19:01:35","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T23:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=53069"},"modified":"2022-04-25T19:01:40","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T23:01:40","slug":"teen-arrested-for-arson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2022\/04\/teen-arrested-for-arson\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen arrested for arson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Paul Leblanc, 13, was taken into custody after allegedly starting two of the four fires Lehigh Acres fire crews responded to on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FLehighAcresFD%2Fposts%2F296947142621607&#038;show_text=true&#038;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"726\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>The fires sparked along 11th Street East near Joel Boulevard, according to the Lehigh Acres Fire Rescue post. Leblanc was arrested after telling firefighters that he started the fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lots those fires were intentionally set with matches on were overgrown, dry, grassy lots, of which there are over 80,000 in Lehigh Acres. During the dry season, they are at an increased risk of fire danger.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cThis is something that could&nbsp;endanger or make homeless several other people in the neighborhood,\u201d said Katie Heck, from the Lehigh Acres Fire District.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Neighbors who heard about the 13-year-old boy who is facing an arson charge are surprised he was starting fires.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what I heard. Those things happen. They shouldn\u2019t happen but they do,\u201d said Gene Price, who lives nearby.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At 13, he\u2019s facing a single charge of arson, although firefighters said he set two different fires using matches.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really important to have a conversation with your kids, about what\u2019s safe to do outside, what\u2019s not safe. Keep those flammable things away like lighters and matches, just not something a child should have in their hands,\u201d Heck added.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now with a burn ban in effect, high winds, and low humidity, now is the time to avoid a fire at all costs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an overwhelming statistic, just how many brush fires in our area are caused by something a human does, and not natural.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Heck also mentioned that the fire danger is so bad that people should even avoid things like grilling food outdoors, as all it takes is a single spark for someone to lose everything.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Leblanc, 13, was taken into custody after allegedly starting two of the four fires Lehigh Acres fire crews responded to on Sunday. The fires sparked along 11th Street East&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":53070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[1244],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53071,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53069\/revisions\/53071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}