Doofus Of The Day #627

A tip o' the hat to reader Merlin, who alerts us to today's winners - two young men from New Zealand.

Police have named two teenagers who were seriously burnt as a result of a gas explosion at a Mosgiel house yesterday.

They are Brendon McLeod (17) and Jamie Jury (18), both of Mosgiel.

Mr McLeod has today been transferred to the burn centre at Middlemore Hospital, in Auckland, and Mr Jury remains in Dunedin Hospital's intensive care unit.

Both remain in a critical condition.

Fire investigators have determined a gas heater sparked explosions in a house where two teenagers were allegedly "huffing" yesterday.

The two teenagers, each believed to be sniffing from 9kg LPG bottles, were engulfed by flames when gas in the room became so condensed it was ignited by the heater.

The explosion at the home in Mosgiel blasted a candlestick across the road and through the window of a parked car.

Fire Service East Otago assistant area commander Trevor Tilyard said this morning there were two explosions: first the two cylinders being used for huffing and then the cylinder attached to the free-standing gas heater.

The first blast knocked over the cylinder fuelling the heater, which started "pumping out a huge fire in that room", Mr Tilyard said.

. . .

The third gas bottle exploded about three or four minutes later.

"The cylinder exploded and propelled into the upper reaches of the room and was embedded in the wall," Mr Tilyard said.

He said the explosion happened just as firefighters were entering the house, though none were injured.

Walls were displaced and the part of the roof blown off in the explosions.

Mr Tilyard said the windows were blown out and glass spread as far as the driveway of a house across the road.

There's more at the link.

Of course, these young men may also qualify for Darwin Awards if they don't recover from their injuries.  Let's hope they live and learn!

Peter