Destroyed façade instead of wasps

A man has ended up in trouble because he used a lighter to check whether the wasps in the his roller blind housing had survived a treatment with insect spray. This resulted in a sudden fire.

The 54-year-old man had had enough at the beginning of August of this year - the wasp plague had to be brought under control. Cost what it must! But it ended up costing a good CHF 10,000.

The man, who was living in Cham, decided to tackle the wasps and their nest with insect spray. He sprayed this into the roller blind housing into which the wasps disappeared, and where their nest had to be. Although curiosity can be a positive thing in itself, the man should have reined it in in this case. The following day, at around 10 p.m., he wanted to see whether "Operation Wasp Death" had been successful.

The Insect repellent ignited while he was looking in
In order to ensure the success of the operation, the 54-year-old looked used a burning cigarette lighter to look into the housing. The insect repellent thereby ignited, and started a blaze. Although the man was able to "superficially extinguish" it, as stated in the criminal order of the Zug Prosecutor's Office, the man nevertheless alerted the fire brigade – out of concern that the fire might continue to smoulder under the facade. In order to prevent a spread of the smouldering remains, the deployed fire brigade had to really get to work. The extinguishing team removed "parts of the insulation material from the roller blind housing box", continues the penalty order. They also had to remove - and extinguish - material from inside the front façade of the house – to the extent of about one metre upwards and two metres downwards. The blaze and fire brigade deployment resulted in damage to the property of around CHF 10,000.

Fine and a financial penalty
The Zug Prosecutor's Office says the man could have avoided causing the fire if he had used a light source without a flame, instead of a lighter. And that he should have known that an insect spray could ignite if an open flame was brought near it. He was conditionally fined 20 daily rates of CHF 100 for negligently causing a fire and for disregarding the duty of care. The violation fine amounted to CHF 200, and must be paid. In addition, he must also pay the procedural fee of CHF 300. The claim of the Zug Gebäudeversicherung (building insurance) with regard to the material damage was referred to the civil courts.