Old news but...

[Ace82]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245364,00.html

Laser Pointer Causes California High Rise Fire
Sunday, January 21, 2007


LOS ANGELES — A hand-held laser pointer caused a fire at a Miracle Mile high rise that caused $200,000 in damage, a fire official said.

The blaze at the 17-story office building at 6200 Wilshire Blvd. began just after 10 a.m. Saturday, said Los Angeles city fire spokesman Brian Humphrey.

The laser device had been laid on an examination table in a 12th floor dermatologist's office, Humphrey said. The device ignited surrounding furnishings, sparking the fire.

The fire was extinguished by the building's sprinkler system, Humphrey said. Firefighters mopped up about 3 inches of water.

There were no reports of injuries.

Damn Pyros!

 

[Ace82]

Another one:
CHULA VISTA: School officials ordered a 90-minute lockdown at Hilltop Middle School yesterday afternoon while police investigated a report of a student with a weapon.


The “weapon” turned out to be a laser pointer shaped like a handgun, police said. Such devices emit a thin, harmless beam of light.
During the police search, a seventh-grade boy showed his teacher a laser pointer “that looked like a derringer,” said Chula Vista police spokesman Bernard Gonzales.

The student, who was not identified, had shown the pointer to a male student, Gonzales said, and the other student promptly told an administrator shortly after 1 p.m. School officials called police at 1:18 p.m. and ordered a lockdown on the 1,200-student campus.

The student may be disciplined because he violated a school policy against bringing a fake weapon to school, said Lillian Leopold, a spokeswoman for the Sweetwater Union High School District.

Parents gathered outside the school during the lockdown were additionally disturbed after one of the officers accidentally discharged a loaded shotgun about 2:30 p.m. No one was injured.

“That's not right,” parent Jerry Esparza said after the shot was fired into the air in the school's parking lot.

Must have been a "blu-ray laser phaser!"