Branko's workshop in located in the basement of his parents home in a smallish town in Croatia, and contains a mechanics pit and hydralic lift for vehicles. He also stores his 'items' in his workshop, including amongst other things ammunition. He was working on a vehicle while in the pit, and his father strolled in and cautioned him, "You had better empty the petrol tank before using the (welding) torch."

Branko replied everything was fine and there was no fuel left. My uncle went back upstairs to have some lunch. Not long after getting upstairs there was an almighty explosion and the kitchen windows blew out! My uncle rushed downstairs to the mechanics pit to find Branko on fire: his hair, face, clothing, everything. Branko did have some sense left to pat himself down and extinguish some flames and my uncle did the rest with an extinguisher or so I was told. Branko was taken to hospital and was there for two weeks while his facial and hand burns healed. It was later the full story emerged.

He had drained the fuel tank of the vehicle but had not vented the tank of fumes. Branko needed to use a welding torch near the tank to fix some metal and the fumes had ignited. The concrete pit protected him from the blast but he was still thrown off his feet and set on fire. Luckily none of his ammunition ignited, but it was a close thing as it was stored on top of a cupboard without protection. As Branko has no children or plans for them, he would have removed himself from the gene pool.

How was I expecting a disaster like this? I photographed him changing a gas cylinder with a lit cigarette in his mouth, laughing that I was 'overreacting'.

Submitted on 01/25/2009

Submitted by: Madcatter
Reference: personal account

Copyright © 2009 DarwinAwards.com

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Thanks for a humorous PA. The images it invokes are amusing. So has he decided to move the ammunition to a safer location or is he waiting until some of it goes up the next time he welds around flammable liquids?

Candi said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
I like this writeup. While some of the factors may border on "too common", the combination is unusual and the entire picture is hilarious! I love the last paragraph. Thanks, Madcatter, and submit again! And please keep us up to date on this cousin of yours!

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