Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: gofaster on July 06, 2004, 01:39:58 PM
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Nothing makes for good reading like mixing alcohol and explosive products.
Here is this year's local story. The recaps of previous years' stories is good reading, too.
I see dumb people.
3 hurt as homemade explosive ignites
The revelers get a fireworks "kaboom" the first time. The second time, the oxygen and acetylene mix sends them to the hospital and blows out windows.[/i]
By CHRIS TISCH, Times Staff Writer
Published July 6, 2004
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LARGO - The explosion blasted out the windows of two homes. It slapped pictures off the wall, shredded a piece of roof and buckled a wooden privacy fence.
Neighbors a block away felt the ground shake, heard windows rattle and listened to car alarms squeal.
The blast occurred late Sunday when revelers at a neighborhood Fourth of July party mixed oxygen and acetylene in a plastic garbage bag, then lighted the homemade firework with a torch, Largo police said.
Three men suffered cuts and burns when the bag exploded. Two were taken by helicopter to the Tampa General Hospital burn unit. They were discharged Monday.
The blast occurred about 11:30 p.m. at 224 Royal Palm Drive, where Nick Pennucci and his family were holding a get-together. Most partygoers, including some children, were in the front lighting fireworks, police said.
But on the side of the house, a few men were messing around with two tanks on a dolly, one filled with oxygen, the other with acetylene, police said.
The men lighted the bag once, police said, getting the fireworklike "kaboom" they were seeking, but not injuring anyone. When the bag was lighted a second time, it detonated with more ferocity, shattering windows of the Pennucci home and the duplex next door.
Police said that while the heat burned the men, the bag split apart and sliced their skin.
"It went off like a bomb," said Sgt. Tim Block.
Neighbor Rebecca Brown, who lives about a block away, was sleeping when she heard the first blast. Moments later, she heard - and felt - the second.
"The ground shook," she said. "My mom's car alarm went off."
One of the men injured was Pennucci, 33, who was driven by an acquaintance to Largo Medical Center. He received the most minor of the injuries, police said.
The other two men, Jerome A. Lowe, 24, and Kent Schulze, 25, suffered more serious injuries and were taken by helicopter to the burn unit, police said.
Brown said Lowe's girlfriend lives in the duplex next door to the Pennucci residence. Brown was surprised to hear Lowe may have been involved in such a stunt.
"That's nothing he would do," Brown said. "When they have parties, they're pretty quiet."
Inside the Pennucci home, police said, the blast knocked photos off walls and toppled other items.
"It's just a mess in there," said Officer Justin Martens.
Police are investigating whether charges should be filed against the men involved in concocting the explosive.
A group of people gathered near the blast site early Monday declined to comment, as did Pennucci's wife. None of the injured men could be reached for comment Monday.
Acetylene, which normally is used in welders' tanks, has been the agent of choice in Independence Day accidents in the Tampa Bay area for three years.
Last year, a 20-year-old man mixed oxygen and acetylene in a 2-liter plastic soda bottle at a party in Palm Harbor. The device blew up in his hand. He also was taken to Tampa General Hospital, treated and released.
The man was charged with discharging a destructive device, for which he was referred to a pretrial intervention program.
The year before, in Tampa, two men put the gas into party balloons, then loaded them in the back of a 1990 Honda. When the men climbed into the car and closed the doors, they created static electricity, causing the balloons to explode. The men were blown out of the Honda, which was destroyed.
The men survived, but suffered burns and ear damage.
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Been there, done that.
Broke a picnic table with about a cubic foot of oxyaceteline, ears rang for a week.
eskimo
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Dry ice pellets in a 2 liter pop bottle, add alittle water, cap it tight, throw it into someones garage can and see what happens. :D
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Originally posted by Ripsnort
Dry ice pellets in a 2 liter pop bottle, add alittle water, cap it tight, throw it into someones garage can and see what happens. :D
Excellent. Gonna have to try that one.
A buddy of mine and I did the ace/oxy thing in a bag too. Blew all the windows out of his dad's 50 x 100' shop. He was not pleased :D
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New warning label mandatory on all oxygen and acetylene bottles:
(http://home.neo.rr.com/svea/morons2.jpg)
eskimo