NorCal man reportedly sets fire to apartment while trying to kill massive spider with lighter

A mother wolf spider carries her babies with her on her back, in Parma, Ohio, Monday, June 21, 2004. (AP Photo/Jamie-Andrea Yanak A mother wolf spider carries her babies with her on her back, in Parma, Ohio, Monday, June 21, 2004. (AP Photo/Jamie-Andrea Yanak Photo: JAMIE-ANDREA YANAK Photo: JAMIE-ANDREA YANAK Image 1 of / 64 Caption Close NorCal man reportedly sets fire to apartment while trying to kill massive spider with lighter 1 / 64 Back to Gallery

It's a compelling tale of man versus nature: One Redding, Calif. resident. One unsettlingly furry spider. And a blaze that took firefighters 20 minutes to extinguish.

On Sunday, firefighters rushed to the 2500 block of Waldon Street near downtown Redding to put out a fire that had erupted inside a single unit at an apartment complex, the Redding Record Searchlight reports. The fire caused about $11,000 in damage and rendered the unit uninhabitable. No injuries were reported.

The Redding paper spoke to witness Lyndsey Wisegarver, a caregiver for one of the men who lived in the apartment, to understand the cause of the fire.

"It was a huge wolf spider," she said.

Video: How tiny rainbows created by spiders could help humans. Story continues below.

One of the men living in the apartment, Wisegarver told the Searchlight, had attempted to set the arachnid ablaze with a torch lighter, only for the flaming spider to crawl onto a mattress. The fire then spread from the mattress to the drapes and a collection of flags, Wisegarver claims.

A fire official told the paper the blaze reached a bedroom closet, but firefighters were able to keep the flames from spreading to neighboring apartments.

The two men occupying the apartment will not be able to return, but Wisegarver told the Record Searchlight that they had been planning to move out for some time; Sunday's fire "just sped up the process."

Redding fire officials could not be immediately reached for comment. A fire marshal told Buzzfeed an investigation remains ongoing.

Though large and scary in appearance, wolf spiders are non-venomous and generally skittish around humans. Click here to read SFGATE's advice for safely removing the gentle arachnids from your home.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.