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Darwin Awards
2009 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
Should I include it in the archive?
Vote to tell me what *you* think!

Gasoline Odour Remover

2009 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

The record confirms, beyond dispute, that on January 18, 2008 the grievor, Thermite Welder Jason Bourassa, was employed as an off season track maintenance employee clearing snow and ice from switches on the Redditt Subdivision near Alma, Manitoba. On that day, which was particularly cold, he worked along with Thermite Welder Alric Wright, using a four door crew-cab pick-up truck.

One of the tools utilized in winter track maintenance is a gasoline powered air blower. Because of the cold temperatures the employees decided to place the blower on the rear seat of their vehicle as they moved from one location to another. As they were driving they detected a smell of gasoline emanating from the back seat of the crew-cab. Mr. Bourassa asked Mr. Wright, who was driving, to pull over. Without explaining anything to his co-worker, Mr. Bourassa proceeded to open the rear door of the crew cab where he saw a small spot of gasoline on the rear seat of the vehicle. He decided that the odour of the gasoline could be eliminated by simply burning the gasoline off from the surface of the seat. To that end, he lit a lighter which he had in his position and applied it to the surface of the seat.

Predictably, the seat burned quite well. So well in fact that, that Mr. Bourassa could not extinguish the flames. When he applied water to the flames they subsided temporarily, but a substantial amount of smoke began to emanate from the area behind the seat where, it appears, a substantial quantity of gasoline had gathered. Very shortly the rear seat exploded into flames, causing Mr. Wright to exit the vehicle and Mr. Bourassa to withdraw the gas blower from where it was resting on the seat. After some slight confusion Mr. Bourassa called the local fire authority by signalling 911, and a fire truck attended at the scene.

The Company’s crew-cab was entirely gutted by fire. The heat of the blaze was sufficient to fully destroy the entire inside of the cab, including the dashboard, steering wheel, seats and all appointments and upholstery. Fortunately, largely by reason of the cooling effect of water poured on the vehicle by the fire truck, acetylene tanks located in the box of the truck immediately behind the cab, as well as a number of containers of gasoline, did not ignite or explode.

Submitted on 11/26/2009

Submitted by: Todd Wallace
Reference: Canadian Railway Office of Arbitration July 16 2008 CROA #3684

Copyright © 2009 DarwinAwards.com

>> Moderator Scores <<

James said:
Definitely Toss: No Self-Selection
While this is HIGHLY amusing, there is no self-selection here (just plain stupidity), and the driver can be classified a bystander (since he didn't know what was going on initially). Just the same, this was good for a laugh! Thanks, Todd!


Bruce said:
Definitely Toss: No Self-Selection
Thanks, but this was just stupidity with gasoline and lighters. It doesn't sound like either man was ever in any danger of being injured.


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