Our Doofi Of The Day are two anonymous Canadians.
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A war on gophers waged by two Canadian men went awry this weekend when a device used to blast the rodents in their holes sparked a massive grass fire in a rural area near Calgary, Alberta, causing more than C$200,000 ($197,000) in damages.
Despite a ban on fires in the tinder-dry area of Springbank, just northeast of Calgary's city limits, two men went into a field to kill gophers using a device called a Rodenator, fire officials said on Monday.
The device pumps a mixture of propane and oxygen into gopher holes, which is then ignited, and, according to the manufacturer's Web site, the resulting blast creates a shock wave that kills the gopher and collapses its tunnel system.
"We had a couple of acreage owners out taking care of their rodent problem with this device," said Captain Joe Garssi of the municipal district of Rocky View's fire department.
"They did a few holes successfully and then hit a hole that didn't go in very far. When they filled it with propane it over-filled the hole...and when they ignited it (fire) flashed out of the hole into the grass beside them."
The resulting grass fire scorched about 160 acres of surrounding property and destroyed a number of outbuildings. No homes were damaged.
"The way I look at it, it's 'humans eight, gophers one'." Garssi said, as the two men destroyed about eight of the rodents before sparking the blaze.
Revenge Of The Rodents?
Peter
Let's see:
ReplyDeletePropane - check
Oxygen - check
Truck - check
Beer - This is Canada, duh!
Fire Extinguisher - Aww Geez Doug, weer just gonna be blasting holes, not starting no fires, and we gots beer, eh? I do'n feel like truckin' back fer a fire bottle.
Anybody that has gophers will understand. I am surprised they did not build a berm around the field and fill it six inches deep in diesel fuel before lighting.
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