[00:10.58]What caused the fire? [00:14.44]At last firemen have put out a big forest fire in California. [00:21.11]Since then, they have been trying to find out how the fire began. [00:27.63]Forest fires are often caused by broken glass or by cigarette ends which people carelessly throw away. [00:37.96]Yesterday the firemen examined the ground carefully, [00:42.32]but were not able to find any broken glass. [00:46.80]They were also quite sure that a cigarette end did not start the fire. [00:53.01]This morning, however, a firemen accidentally discovered the cause. [00:59.38]He noticed the remains of a snake which was wound round the electric wires of a 16, 000-volt power line. [01:09.98]In this way, he was able to solve the mystery. [01:14.65]The explanation was simple but very unusual. [01:20.03]A bird had snatched up the snake from the ground and then dropped it on to the wires. [01:27.83]The snake then wound itself round the wires. [01:31.74]When it did so, it sent sparks down to the ground and these immediately started a fire. 消防队员们终于扑灭了加利福尼亚的一场森林大火。从那时起，他们一直试图找出起火的原因。森林火灾时常由破碎的玻璃或人们随手扔掉的香烟头引起。昨天，消防队员仔细查看了地面，但未能发现碎玻璃。他们还十分肯定火灾也不是由烟头引起的。然而今天上午，一个消防队员偶然发现了起火的原因。他发现了缠绕在16,000伏高压线上的一条死蛇。就这样，他解开了起火之谜。解释很简单，却异乎寻常。一只鸟把蛇从地上抓起来，然后把它扔到了电线上。于是蛇就缠住了几根电线。当它这样做时，把火花送到了地面，这些火花立刻引起了一场大火。