On 14 August at approximately 11:55am, an explosion occurred inside a passenger vehicle in Choshi City, Chiba Prefecture. The main ingredient to this minor disaster was some cooling spray like the kind used by athletes.

We might expect this to be the work of some punk teenagers – with their newfangled Hanna Montanas and Donkey Kong video games – fooling around with matches and aerosols. However, the victims/perpetrators where actually a middle-aged man and woman… fooling around with aerosols and lighters.

You know how a parked car can get insanely hot under the summer sun? According to the authorities the man had been using cooling spray to cool down the inside of his vehicle before entering. Generally, cooling sprays are applied directly to the body or garment like a hat or handkerchief.

The thought never occurred to me but spraying it all around the interior of an automobile just seems like a bad idea for a variety reasons such as possibly being hazardous to inhale or just plain not working very well.

Nevertheless, the 40-year-old “school instructor” did so and promptly got in with his 27-year-old female friend with the doors and windows shut. While inside the fume-filled vehicle someone lit a cigarette: the climax to all your favorite explosion stories.

Luckily both people escaped serious injury suffering only minor burns to the arms and other parts. When asked about the incident the man said, “the car was hot so I thought I’d make it cooler.”

He didn’t.

Source: Nikkansports via Hachima Kiko (Japanese)
Image: Amazon