Gunpowder blast burns teen 
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Gunpowder blast burns teenager
Boy suffers facial injuries after using blowtorch on bowl of black powder.
Wednesday, July 09, 2003
By JIMMY P. MILLER
The Express-Times
OORE TWP. -- A 16-year-old township boy suffered burns to his face Tuesday when a bowl of gunpowder blew up in his face, police said.
Township Police Chief Joseph Keglovits said the boy originally tried to light the bowl of black powder with a grill lighter.
"But that's not good enough. So he takes a blowtorch, the kind you'd have at home to sweat pipes, and it blows up in his face," Keglovits said.
The incident happened about 1:15 p.m. in the 400 block of Jarred Lane in the Whispering Hollows Trailer Court just off Route 248, police said. Keglovits declined to release the boy's name because of his age.
The boy was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township, Keglovits said. The boy told police he was in a lot of pain following the incident, Keglovits said.
Black powder is easily obtainable and often used by hunters. The boy could very easily have had access to it, he said.
"This is Moore Township. You've got 40 square miles of hunters here," he said.
Keglovits said the incident is likely not related to a series of pipe bombings and fireworks blasts that have damaged mailboxes, patio doors and windshields in the township over the past four weeks.
The 16-year-old probably set the black powder ablaze just to see it "flash," Keglovits said.
"He wanted to see it go. He'd probably done it a hundred times, but when you put that much heat to it, it flashes big," he said. "He made a foolish decision and suffered the consequences."
A neighbor, Beate Koury, said emergency personnel were taking the boy out on a stretcher when she returned to her home Tuesday afternoon.
"There was a lot of commotion. Normally, all of the boys are out there playing basketball," she said, pointing to an open space near the boy's home.
"He already has one finger less," said Koury, who has lived in the trailer court for 18 years with her husband. The boy lost one of his fingers after an accident involving firecrackers when he was a child, she said.
Submitted on 07/09/2003
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