Paint Thinner 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
This one would definitely classify as a personal account because no newspaper heard about it. It is also an honorable mention because no one died but it is very amusing. This happened a few months ago at the University of Missouri-Rolla campus. My husband and I (and several other people) witnessed this and the story could probably be verified with the Phelps County Regional Medical Center Hospital in Rolla.
My husband and I are good friends with a few local punk rock bands. On the night in question (I believe it was the end of June) one of the bands set up cardboard robots propped up with paint cans. The idea was to destroy the robots at the end of their set. The audience got involved in tearing the robots apart and one young man named Andy thought it would be fun to take a running jump onto the full paint can. Of course he got covered in paint and everyone laughed. To get back at the laughing audience, he picked up the can and started flinging the remaining paint all over the ground. (This was an outdoor concert.) Now the lead singer of this band became upset because he was in charge of the event and would have to pay a fine for destruction of property, so a couple of girls went out and bought paint thinner to help clean up Andy's little mess. Full of remorse, Andy decided to help them clean it up. As you can imagine, there was paint thinner everywhere and all over Andy. When they were done, Andy thought it would be funny to set his paint covered shoe on fire, while it was still on his foot. At first he hopped around through the crowd laughing but then he realized the fire was going out, so he decided to pat out the flames inching up his leg with his bare hands that were incidentally soaked in paint thinner. As you can imagine, his arms caught on fire. Panicked, he finally decided to stop drop and roll, except he rolled right into the area of ground where they had been applying the paint thinner. Amazingly enough he did not set himself further ablaze, but now the ground was on fire and he was rolling into a bush which caught on fire. The fire started spreading toward a trash can full of paper towels soaked in thinner, and a lake of paint thinner which happened to be right next to the stage covered in expensive sound equipment. If it hadn't been for the quick wit of the crowd and my husband, the whole thing would have gone up in flames. Fortunately they put the fire out and just before the University police came strolling by. That would be why this never reached the papers. Andy went to the hospital and you can still see where the bush was burned. Submitted on 08/24/2003
Submitted by:
Anonymous
Reference:
June 2003
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