HYANNIS – Children playing with fire is being blamed for the death of an eight-year-old boy in Hyannis yesterday.
Savvas Yianasmidis, a third grader at Hyannis East Elementary School, was inside the shed playing with his laptop computer with two friends. The other two boys were neighbors who were also eight years old.
The shed was behind Savvas’s home at 252 Hinckley Road in Hyannis, not far from the Cape Cod Mall.
Hyannis Fire received a call at 5:30 p.m. Monday and upon arrival, firemen found the 8 by 12 foot shed fully ingulfed in flames.
When the fire was extenguished, fire personnel discovered the boy’s remains.
One of the boys alerted Savvas’s mother that there was a fire in the shed. She immediately went out to the backyard. But by that time, the shed was fully engulfed.
According to Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe, one of the boys was playing with a lighter that started the fire. Gasoline being stored in the shed for a lawnmower accelerated the blaze, he said.
Barnstable Police, Hyannis Fire Department, State Police assigned to the Fire Marshal’s Office and State Police Detectives assigned to the Cape and Islands Dsitrict Attorney’s Office are continuing the investigation.