Woman uses lighter to check gas can level, blows up car

[3mnkids]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1741354,CST-NWS-lighter29.article

A Joliet woman suffered second-degree burns Tuesday night after she used a cigarette lighter to help her see how much gas was in a can she was been filling.

The incident happened at a 7-Eleven gas station at 1609 E. Cass about 10:30 p.m., police said.

The 27-year-old woman "was filling up a gas can, which was sitting on the passenger seat of the car. [She] then used a lighter to . . . observe how full the can was," police said.

The flame ignited the gas, and the can exploded, setting the car's interior aflame.

Apparently afraid that the fire would spread to the gas pump she had been using, the woman began to push the burning car.

The car was about five feet from the gas pumps and engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived.

The woman was treated at the scene for second-degree burns to her right wrist and right thigh before being taken to Silver Cross Hospital. Her injuries were serious but not life-threatening.

   I'm glad she wasn't seriously injured but come on, common sense should have told her not to do this. At least she had enough sense to move the car away from the pumps.

[Newt]

Darwin Award *FAIL*

[Paquita]

I think this is the 2nd or 3rd weird news story from Joliet.  I'm never going there again, the next one might be mine!

[InformationGeek]

That's nothing.  There was a guy who used a blowtouch to open up a gas station pump and there was a guy who, as a joke, lit up his cigratte lighter near a gas pump as his friend was pumping gas, catching the whole car on fire.  It destroyed the car and it nearly killed the wife and baby of the jokster's friend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMJOqOUg8Xk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpoWGF1xBFs&feature=PlayList&p=D9DD6C733F2648AA&index=113