Date: 11/16/93

NORWALK, Ohio (AP) - A mother blamed the television show "Beavis and Butt-head" for prompting her 5-year-old son to set a fire that destroyed the family's home on Monday.

Christina Zapata, 24, said her son, Marcus, climbed to the top of the refrigerator to get a butane lighter and set the fire in his bedroom.

Ms. Zapata and her boyfriend, Gary Skelton, got Marcus and their 2-year-old daughter, Jesika, out before anyone was injured.

Their home in this north-central city about 10 miles south of the Lake Erie shore, was destroyed.

Ms. Zapata said she had talked to Marcus about fire on Sunday.

"We were in the grocery store and he kept saying, `Fire is good, fire is good,' like on that stupid `Beavis and Butt-head' show," she said. "I sat down with him yesterday and told him, `No, fire is not good.'"

The show, which appears on the cable network MTV, has developed a cult following who mimic their staccato "heh-heh, heh-heh" laugh.

All references to fire have been deleted from the show since a woman in the Dayton suburban of Moraine blamed the show for prompting her 5-year-old son to start an Oct. 6 fire that killed her 2-year-old daughter. MTV also moved the show to a later time slot.

Fire officials in Sidney, about 45 miles north of Moraine, blames the show for a fire there in August. Three girls set fire to their home after playing with fire and an aerosol can. Officials said the girls got the idea from watching the show. No one was injured in that fire but the home was heavily damaged.

MTV has said the show was not to blame for either fire.

Carole Robinson, an MTV spokesman, declined to comment until more information about the fire was available.

"Without knowing all the facts I really can't comment," she said from her New York office