Woman injured in gunpowder bla 
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Woman injured in gunpowder blast
Pregnant teen suffers burns after she drops cigarette ashes in can
By Mike Martindale / The Detroit News
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COMMERCE TOWNSHIP -- A pregnant 19-year-old Walled Lake woman remained hospitalized Wednesday with serious injuries suffered when she extinguished a cigarette in a can of gunpowder.
Nikki Newberry remains in critical but non-life-threatening condition in the University of Michigan burn unit, said Detective Dan Flynn of the Oakland County Sheriff's Department, who is investigating the accident.
"It has not yet been determined if surgery will be necessary on her hand or arm; both were severely burned in the blast," said Flynn, of the sheriff's Commerce Township substation. "Doctors will probably make that decision by Wednesday."
Flynn said Newberry, who is six months pregnant, was visiting a friend's home on Terry Street in Commerce Township at 4:15 p.m. Monday when the incident occurred.
The pregnancy is not believed to have been affected by the incident, Flynn said, which happened when Newberry and some friends were "just hanging out."
"She had joined several friends in a bedroom and was smoking a cigarette," said Flynn. "She was looking for something to put her ashes in and grabbed a pop can off a bedside stand and dropped her cigarette in it."
Newberry's right hand and arm suffered second-and-third-degree burns in the resulting explosion, which blew a 14-inch by 10-inch hole in a wall of the home.
"She ran from the room, her hand and her hair both on fire," Flynn said.
Newberry ran from the house, and an adult who was elsewhere in the home and the woman's boyfriend chased her down, helped extinguish the flames and called 911.
She was also treated for burns to the face and eyebrows.
No one else was injured in the explosion, witnessed by three men, ages 19 to 20 years old. All have been questioned and released by investigators, Flynn said.
"The boyfriend said he and a friend had been entertaining themselves with the powder a couple days ago and he had put what was left into a pop can, set it up there near his bed and then forgot about it," Flynn said.
Initially the boyfriend told investigators he and friends had dismantled some powder from M-80 fireworks "to see how it would burn."
"But the powder does not seem consistent with fireworks," said Flynn.
Flynn said he would file a report with the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office over the incident. He did not know what charges, if any, might result from the incident.
You can reach Mike Martindale at (248) 647-7226 or mmartindale@detnews.com.
Submitted on 02/01/02
Submitted by:
R Long
Reference:
http://detnews.com/2002/oaklan
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