Doofus Of The Day #616

Today's winner is from Bainbridge Island, Washington.

The Grand Old Fourth celebration is always a big deal in this island community, featuring a pancake breakfast, a parade with community-service groups and kids' soccer teams, and of course the annual fireworks show over Eagle Harbor — a show that this year, nine days before the big event, went up in smoke.

Literally. Fireworks for Bainbridge Island's Fourth of July show, along with fireworks for neighboring Poulsbo's show, were packed, organized and stored ready to go in a container at an auto-wrecking yard a few miles away. Then, authorities say, the operator of the wrecking yard decided to go outside and try out his new rifle.

This is the part of the story where everybody winces.

"One of the shots hit a junk car in his yard and must've ricocheted and struck the (container) that contained $80,000 worth of fireworks. Well, within about a second the box contained no explosives," said Ron Krell of Viking Fest, who is helping organize Poulsbo's 3rd of July show. "It exploded, and we had the greatest fireworks show you ever would have wanted to not see."

Residents a mile away from the Belfair wrecking yard reported hearing the explosion last week. When it was over, only a smoking crater and the charred hulk of the container — which was propelled about 20 feet — marked the spot where everybody's Fourth of July plans used to be.

"It went boom," said Jeromy Hicks, investigator for Mason County Fire District 2, who was called to the scene. "I think it was a cascading series of explosions that lasted about a minute. I live a mile and a half away, and it shook my wife out of bed. She said, 'Man, I think we just had an earthquake.' Me, I sleep through anything."

There's more at the link.

I'm still trying to figure out why the owner of a scrapyard would be firing a rifle in his business premises at one in the morning!  I'd hazard a guess that beer was involved . . .





Peter