The kitchen of the home at 825 Alfadel Ln. in Soquel was burned to ruin at approximately 11 a.m. Friday morning, when the caretaker of the house attempted to remove interior mold by lighting off several gopher bombs.

"A guy at the hardware store told him to use a gopher bomb, one of those smoke bombs they use to smoke out gophers," Central Fire District spokesman Mike DeMars said. "So he took a couple of those and lit them off in the house, and one of them started a fire in the kitchen."

The house was empty but was being looked after by the gopher bomber, who was able to extinguish most of the flames with a pressure washer. Once fire crews arrived, they put out the rest of the blaze.

Along with the destroyed kitchen, the rest of the house was damaged by smoke.

As for the gopher-bomb-mold-removal technique, DeMars said he had never heard that one before.

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