Gas in Toilet Causes Blast

[Marcia]

That's how the headline read. Fascinated and amused and wondering what they possibly have eaten, and thinking of that old "poem" we all know, I clicked. Nah, faked out ;)

If you can't stand the heat, don't pour gasoline down the toilet. An apartment tenant made that $75,000 mistake Tuesday.

CNN Story [cnn.aimtoday.cnn.com]

[Essex_boy]

Hm I run social housing estates and have come across people doing some really silly things but NEVER have I come across this before.

Had a guy remove all his roof joists - £50K in damage.

[davewray]

This gives new meaning to explosive dialogue..I mean...er

Dave.

[graywolf]

You know this is an old wives tale thats been going around for years.

There a show on Discovery channel called Mythbusters that sets out to prove or disprove them here is the show synoposis

Episode 1: Ice Bullet, Exploding Toilet, Who Gets Wetter?
Jamie and Adam set out to methodically bust three urban legends in the premiere episode of Mythbusters. Smoking in the bathroom — a bad habit made worse when shards of flaming toilet start flying. But is it really possible to explode a commode by spraying a flammable substance down the bowl then lighting a match? Jamie and Adam find out if this myth holds water.

[dsc.discovery.com...]

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

Under all sorts of conditions the most they were able to achieve with any type of flamable liquid including gasoline was big flame burst. They had to resort to gunpowder to get a really big explosion.

They've tested things like pop rocks and soda, cell phones and gas sations, peeing on the third rail, dropping a penny off a building, and even escaping from Alkatraz. If you happen to like shows about controlled demolition and destruction this is a really great show.

[vkaryl]

Well, this happened in SLC, was reported in the Trib, so I think it's probably not totally false.... mythbusting notwithstanding.

[pendanticist]

There is a vast difference between these two stories. The most credible is the volume and type of fuels used.

I then to think that if Mythbuster's had used straight gasoline (in the same fashion), they'da got the same results as our misguided tenant.

[vkaryl]

Could be - apparently the guy was really a few bricks shy of a load....

[Leosghost]

Peeing on the third rail may be an urben myth ..but I can tell you thAt peeing on an electric stock fence ( obscured by weeds ) is bad for your nerves ..been there done that ..

[Marcia]

>>a few bricks shy of a load....

hehe, I've heard of being a couple of cans short of a six-pack, but never heard of that one before.

[vkaryl]

My father and his mother were full of stuff like that, Marcia. Not sure if it's their Scots/Penn Deutsch background transplanted into the middle south (what I call Oklahoma/Missouri etc), or something else....