Celina boys escape injury after firing Roman candles at one another inside

The trailer they were playing in was completely destroyed.

CELINA — Four Celina 14-year-old boys narrowly escaped injury after starting a fire with fireworks inside of a trailer along County Road 135 on Saturday afternoon.

Michael Smith

This is what was left of a trailer after four Celina boys set it afire with fireworks on Saturday afternoon. Several fire departments battled the blaze. There were no injuries.

Collin County Fire Marshal Michael Smith said the four were shooting Roman candles at the trailer. They went inside the trailer and began shooting fireworks at each other. A recliner chair caught fire. The blaze quickly spread to the rest of the trailer. One of the boys was nearly trapped inside the trailer, but he escaped, along with the other three, uninjured.

The Collin County fire department and the fire departments of Anna, Weston, and Celina put the trailer fire and adjacent grass fire out. The trailer was completely destroyed. It was only occasionally occupied.

It took 30 or 40 minutes to put out the fire because tankers had to be brought in. There was no nearby water source.

"When playing with fireworks, no one is the winner," Smith said.

When Smith spoke with the Celina Record, he had not yet spoken with the owners of the land and trailer. The owner of the land lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Smith said he will give the four boys an opportunity to participate in a juvenile fire setter intervention program. Their parents will also participate in the program. The program includes classes, projects, and the boys will have to make restitution.

"Hopefully we can turn a negative experience into a positive one. We're lucky no one was hurt or killed," Smith said.

Other residences were only a few hundred yards away from the grass fire, Smith added.