Man sets rental car ablaze while trying to kill bedbugs
EASTPORT, N.Y. -- Police say a Long Island man set his rental car ablaze while trying to kill bedbugs inside the vehicle.
Scott Kemery suffered first- and second-degree burns in the incident Tuesday outside an Eastport supermarket.
Police say the Bridgehampton resident poured alcohol over the insects, then sat in the car and lit a cigarette, setting off the blaze.
He fled the vehicle on his own.
Detective Sgt. Edward Fitzgerald told Newsday that someone told Kemery that if he saturated the bedbugs with alcohol it would kill them.
Police say two other cars were heavily damaged from the intense heat of the fire.
In January, the pest control company Orkin released their annual "Bedbug Cities" list, which is based on the number of treatments the company performed from January to December 2014. The company reports an 18 percent increase in business last year. An industry report finds Americans spent some $446 million in bedbug extermination in 2013, up from $70 million in 2004.
Which cities are worst? Chicago led the company's list for the third year in a row.