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Darwin Awards
2013 Slush Pile

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

Big Bang Theory

2013 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Authorities say the man was working with the flare gun and fireworks at a home.

Investigators believe 52-year-old John David Cook Jr. was experimenting with fireworks, something his wife told authorities her husband doesn't typically do.

"It was like ka-whoom!" neighbor K.R. Harrison said. The explosion was so powerful, Harrison says, it set off car alarms and shook the ground. It also killed Cook.

"It appears he was trying to make a bigger boom," Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said.

Investigators believe Cook was building a larger explosive device from fireworks and using a 37mm launcher when things went wrong. They believe he was attempting to fire it in the backyard of his home when it exploded in his hands.

"Both of [Cook's hands] were severely injured, one was severed. And then it appears that part of the device he was trying to build impaled in his chest," Hawthorne said.

Cook's wife, who had been asleep, called 911. He died on the way to the hospital.

Sheriff Hawthorne has this warning:

"Fireworks are extremely dangerous and particularly if you don't use them for what they are designed for," Hawthorne said.

While it is legal to set off fireworks in Chambers County, it is illegal to modify. Doing so, the sheriff says, cost Cook his life.

(Copyright ©2014 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved

Submitted on 01/08/2014

Submitted by: Dale DuPont
Reference: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9373840--Dec 2013

Copyright © 2013 DarwinAwards.com

>> Moderator Scores <<

James said:
Definitely Toss: Too Common
Thanks, but fireworks-related incidents are way too common for consideration, and this one is sort of par for the course. Thanks just the same, Dale!


Bruce said:
Definitely Toss: Repeat
Aside from what James said, this is also a duplicate of a story we've already received (although this does provide a lot more information than the first submission). Thanks just the same. FYI: http://darwinawards.com/reject/new/pending20131229-211755.html


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