Smoking and Spray Deodorant is Dangerous

[Deltaboy]

Here’s how deodorant blew up this car and sent a man to the hospital, police say

Baltimore County Police spokeswoman Jennifer Peach told the Baltimore Sun. An unidentified man rolled down the front windows of his Chevy at around 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Peach said, and put on some aerosol deodorant with the air conditioning running.

Then he lit a cigarette, she said.

“I would say it would be best to describe as a sudden and violent expansion of the air molecules in that vehicle,” Peach told the Sun.

Becareful my fellow Badgers.

 

[emwolf]

those photos--ouch! but i don't do stuff like that in the car anymore. the most I do is a little mustache combing

 

[Canadian Mountain Man]

 

[OtterLunacy]

He had the windows rolled down and it still went boom? I think he might have used too much deodorant. . . On a related note, I still remember idiots in middle and high school locker rooms intentionally creating a mini-flamethrower with a lighter and those canned deodorants. Well, more of a mini-fireball since they only sprayed for a second or two at a time.

With regards to the Darwin Awards, I like that graphic but I'm not sure it applies here. Is it a stupid way to die? Sure. Were his actions terribly stupid? I'm not so sure about that. Again, he did have the windows down and the air running. I wouldn't have expected the air to remain volatile for any significant length of time under those conditions either. Not unless he emptied half a can all at once. . . And even then, the volatile part should disperse fairly quickly.

 

[BigJ]

+1! Sad, but true!

 

[Canadian Mountain Man]

With regards to the Darwin Awards, I like that graphic but I'm not sure it applies here. Is it a stupid way to die? Sure. Were his actions terribly stupid? I'm not so sure about that. Again, he did have the windows down and the air running. I wouldn't have expected the air to remain volatile for any significant length of time under those conditions either. Not unless he emptied half a can all at once. . . And even then, the volatile part should disperse fairly quickly.

We live in a world that has been bubble wrapped, safety interlocked and covered with warning labels. We're one step away from every man, woman & child being issued government provided helmets, knee & elbow pads. So if someone manages to blow themselves up, particularly with the damage shown, they almost certainly had a complicit or implicit hand in the misfortune. And having looked at the pics the story doesn't pass muster. In addition to your sound observations to spray deodorant for a regular application wouldn't have that much of an explosive force and more importantly even if the inside of the car was highly combustible if a window was open thats the direction the blast force would take, not crumbling the roof and side panels.

 

[OtterLunacy]

even if the inside of the car was highly combustible if a window was open thats the direction the blast force would take, not crumbling the roof and side panels.

A good point, though I would like to think that the investigators can tell the difference between windows that have been blown out vs rolled down. . .

 

[doctordial]

Well...... It's been said that cigarette smoking kills.

 

[fathandle]

The Austin bomber did less damage to his car killing himself, than this guy with some Right Guard! Not sure about this story really....