and first of all, I'm not a native speaker, so pse be gentle if I misspelled something... And, I hope no-one submitted this before, but I don't think so since it happened in Germany and was only populated in the local newspapers. I can proof that this story IS true, unfortunately I don't have a link to the newspaper's archive to present it here... Well, okay, let's go:

As you know, it's summer in Germany, and believe it or not, it's a real HOT summer (temperatures abt. 30 degrees centigrade outside as I'm writing this, although it's 8 p.m., and day temperatures 100 degrees Fahrenheit and above). So, best conditions for weed, and it grows everywhere - also on the roof of this ingenious guy's summer house in his garden. So, of course, since we're in Germany, we will get rid of these unusable plants! But how? Using toxics is not a very good idea, using garden tools is ineffective and takes a long time - hey, a flame thrower could do the job perfectly! This is right, and little, butan-driven flamethrowers are used for weed annihilation on pathways or in similar environments. But, summer houses often have wooden roofs, and wood burns, especially when it's very dry as in these hot days. So, it took our hero only a few minutes to set the entire roof of his little shed to bright fire. Bad enough, as you would say, but a few good buckets of water would've been able to extinguish the fire - if, well, if our hero had taken the reserve gas bottles out of his shed! So, he had a burning wooden enclosure, with several gas bottles full of flammable propan/butan inside, and he decided to do the only thing left: RUN! That was his first (and only) good decision during the event, and kept him from earning a real darwin award this time. He's only worth a honorable mention, since he only suffered some first-degree burns. Well, you can imagine the rest: his entire shed was blown into the air, and the detonation destroyed several windows in the neighbourhood and damaged some houses in the nearby. But, hey, he finally DID his job: There's no single plant left on the roof (okay, and there's no roof anymore...)

Hope you like it,

Harald

Submitted on 07/19/2006

Submitted by: Harald
Reference: German newspaper WAZ, July 14

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

James said:
Neutral: Honorable Mention
Yes, Harald, I like it enough to at least share it with the readers! I'll take your word on the veracity of this story (I'll guess most local German papers don't have websites). Using a butane flamethrower to kill weeds on a dry wooden roof? This goes above and beyond a mere lapse in common sense! Stupid enough for me, that's for sure!

Fitzroy said:
Neutral: Honorable Mention
It would be nice to have a media reference, or perhaps redesignate this as a Personal Account with input from someone who knew the guy who did it. Even so, the sequence of events does seem like a foundation for humor, so here's hoping it proceeds well through the process.

Jorge said:
Neutral: Personal Account

Sheryl said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
I laughed out loud at this one and loved your write-up. I can just imagine this happening like a cartoon! Thanks for the story. I've voted PA for the time being as there's no reference.

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