Pet Rat Retrieval
"In retrospect, lighting the match was my mistake. But I was
only trying to retrieve my son's rat." Dick Stone told doctors in
the severe burns unit of San Francisco City Hospital. Admitted for
emergency treatment after an attempt to retrieve the rat had gone
seriously wrong.
He explained, "My son left the cage door open, so his rat,
Vermin, escaped into the garage. As usual, it looked for a good
place to hide, and ran up the exhaust pipe of my motorcycle. I
tried to retrieve Vermin by offering him food attached to a string,
but he wouldn't come out again, so I peered into the pipe and
struck a match, thinking the light might attract him."
At a hushed press conference, a hospital spokesman described
what had happened next. "The flame ignited a pocket of residual
gas and a flame shot out the pipe igniting Mr. Stone's mustache and
severely burned his face. It also set fire to the pet rat's fur
and whiskers which, in turn, ignited a larger pocket of gas further
up the exhaust pipe which propelled the rodent out like a
cannonball."
Stone suffered second-degree burns, and a broken nose from the
impact of the pet rat. His son was grounded for 6 weeks.