Following a football match, 200 rival fans riot in the street. What is the proximate cause of the damage to the stock in a boutique due to smoke from a burning car?

The proximate cause of the damage to the stock in the boutique is identified as the riot. Proximate cause is the primary event that set everything else into motion. In this scenario, the riot directly led to the sequence of events that culminated in the fire and subsequent smoke damaging the boutique.

While the burning car and the fire were significant events, they were not the initial trigger of the situation; they were consequences of the riotous behavior of the fans. The chaos and disorder stemming from the riot created the conditions for the cars to be set on fire, which then caused the smoke damage to the boutique. The football match itself may have been the catalyst for the riot, but it is the riot that stands as the immediate cause leading to the damages incurred by the boutique. Therefore, identifying the riot as the proximate cause is crucial in understanding the direct link between the fans' actions and the resulting damage.