Tourist torches paper to scare spider, burns down $112,000 Bali villa

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorA tourist in Bali tried to scare a spider with burning paper, and the fire spread quickly enough to destroy a villa worth a hundred twelve thousand dollars.

2. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorBadung firefighters and North Kuta Police put it out. With us tonight is Ignatius Bellweather, author of Small Problem, Big Flame. You predicted this?

3. IB

   Ignatius BellweatherI predicted it, and I predicted the opposite, a tourist calmly releasing a spider outdoors. Both are in chapter four.

4. IB

   Ignatius BellweatherIn my professional experience, a shed teaches you everything.

5. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorA shed?

6. IB

   Ignatius BellweatherA hypothetical shed. Wooden, about eight by ten, near a fence.

7. IB

   Ignatius BellweatherThe point is that fire is a very confident answer to a very small question.

8. 

   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorThe question was a spider. So why paper, and not a shoe, or a glass, or just leaving?

9. IB

   Ignatius BellweatherPaper feels harmless until it isn't. In my professional experience, and this shed had a blue door, the flame always arrives before the plan does.

10. 

    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorYou keep clicking that lighter. Is it for emphasis, or comfort?

11. IB

    Ignatius BellweatherResearch. It's the same lighter from the shed, and the wasp, which I'll say again, was lightning's fault.

12. 

    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorThe wasp was lightning's fault.

13. 

    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorYour book covers both outcomes, so did the spider make it out? The story doesn't say, and I'd like one survivor.

14. IB

    Ignatius BellweatherThe spider is in the appendix, unharmed. It's the only one who read the whole book.

15. 

    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorSo the spider has no damage to report, and the villa has a hundred twelve thousand dollars of it.

16. IB

    Ignatius BellweatherClick.