14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week, a man in Missouri, US, inadvertently set his own car ablaze while trying to put out a fire. Apparently, the man hoped that driving over the flames would somehow miraculously extinguish them.
You see, he thought it would be kind of like smoldering a blaze with a towel or blanket. Except he didn't use a towel or a blanket, but his van.
Of course, things didn't go as planned
When the man drove his van over the blaze, one of the tires caught fire. Soon enough, the flames grew and engulfed the whole vehicle.
Then, things took a turn for the worse, seeing as the van was full of live ammunition. Long story short, the ammunition caught fire too and started shooting.
“The owner said that he was trying to burn trash when the field caught fire. Then he decided to drive over the flames to try and put it out, which caused his tire to catch fire.”
“Ammunition in that burning car began discharging,” says the Clay County Sheriff's Office in a report. What the ammo was doing in the van remains a mystery.
A local law enforcement officer sent to investigate the incident and firefighters had to wait a few good minutes before they could get close enough to the van to extinguish it.
Well, at least nobody was harmed
As you can see in the photos released by the Clay County Sheriff's Office, available below, this was no small fire. Add to this the live ammunition firing without warning and it's pretty clear that, although it might seem amusing now, this incident was actually quite serious.
All the same, it looks like the man who started the blaze, the deputy and the firefighters who rushed to his help all escaped unharmed. The van, however, is probably scrap metal right about this time.