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Darwin Awards
2008 Slush Pile

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

The Campout Pyro

2008 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

I am a member of the Boy Scouts of America, and my troop goes on campouts about once a month. On the last campout I attended there was to be a special bonfire ceremony. Little did we know that putting Evan in charge of both the Fuel and the lighter was not a good idea.

The logs for the bonfire were piled about 12 feet high in a circle with about a 6 to 7 foot diameter. When it comes time to light the beast Evan jumps up and runs over to his creation and proceeds to dump and entire can of gasoline on it.

So far so good... (a little too much enthusiasm, but still not bad yet.)

Here's the kicker. After dumping all but the dregs out of the gas can Evan starts clicking the lighter trying to get it working.

I immediately see this as a problem because he is still holding an UPSIDE-DOWN GAS CAN at his side.

I yell out to try to stop him, but he is absolutely determined to get his Darwin Award. anyway, a friend of ours leaps for the gas can and snatches it out of Evan's hand about half a second before Evan gets the lighter to work.

You can probably guess what happened...

Poor Evan. All i heard was "Click""BOOM!" the resulting fireball flew near 50ft into the sky and caught grass fires 15ft away from the fire ring. Evan was thrown back out from the explosion that had engulfed him a second prior and landed on his back with the wind knocked out of him.

He's still alive, but because he tried so hard for it, i'm submitting this for an Honorable Mention.

Submitted on 04/14/2008

Submitted by: Devin McCamey
Reference: April 5th, 2008

Copyright © 2008 DarwinAwards.com

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Chip said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Devin, since we have no links to verify this, all we can recommend is a Personal Account. A question for you though, why did any scoutmaster, or any adult, think it is OK to pour a can of gas on wood to use as a lighter? Is there now a Bomber Merit Badge? Thanks for the story.


Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
I also wonder why there weren't any adults overseeing this big a bonfire. Be sure to let Evan know he's now in the running for a Darwin merit badge! Thanks, Devin.


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