Burned in an exploding crapper

“Lawsuit claims exploding toilet burned man
Friday, June 3, 2005 Posted: 10:30 AM EDT (1430 GMT)




Morgantown West Virginia
MORGANTOWN, West Virginia (AP) -- A man who says he was severely burned when a portable toilet exploded after he sat down and lit a cigarette is suing a general contractor and a coal company, accusing them of negligence.

John Jenkins, 53, and his wife, Ramona Jenkins, 35, of Brave, Pennsylvania, filed the suite Tuesday in county circuit court seeking $10 million in damages from Chisler Inc. and Eastern Associated Coal Corp.

The lawsuit claims Jenkins' face, neck, arms, torso and legs were severely burned last July after the cigarette ignited methane gas leaking from a pipe underneath the toilet unit.

"When I struck the lighter, the whole thing just detonated -- the whole top blew off," said Jenkins, a methane power plant operator with North West Fuels Development Inc. "I can't tell you if it blew me out the door or if I jumped out."

Eastern Associated owns the Blacksville property where the explosion occurred. Jenkins alleges that heavy equipment from Chisler Inc. ran over the pipelines before the explosion, causing the methane gas leak.

A call to the Charleston office of Peabody Energy, the parent company of Eastern Associated Coal, was not returned.

A man who answered the phone at Chisler's office in Fairview said the company would have no comment.
last edited: 6/03/05 12:42:33 PM”

“It happened after he "sat down."

He was burned on his "face, neck, arms, torso and legs."

How did his, um, more sensitive body parts avoid being burned? Was he wearing shorts and forgot to pull his pants down before sitting down? Or was he not intending to use the toilet, but was just going in there for a smoke break?”

“lol, now thats what I call "gassy"”

“Dunno. Maybe the methane had filled the crapper outside the business part.”

“Yeah, really Bowlder...I mean the only thing that could possibly be more delicious and refreshing than smoking itself would be to smoke in a crapper! Yum. Personally, I always hold my breath for the entire time if I'm ever unfortunate enough to have to go in one of those thingies.”

“Dam_n Geo, you beat me by 10 minutes.”

“Getting to be the only place you CAN smoke :P”

“Brings a new meaning to the term "explosive diarrhea."”

“Remind me never to cook a meal inside one of those things again.”

“and to think how many times I put my life at rish using a torch while spelunking in those things”

“

Crappers Full”

“this ones been done to death,, if you want the story, watch "mythbusters" on TLC,, they did all kinds of stuff to get the porta-pottie to burn,, gasoline vapor, methane, propane,, funny show, but unlikely to get the thing to light up.”

“Jenkins, a methane power plant operator with North West Fuels Development Inc. ...
Eastern Associated owns the Blacksville property where the explosion occurred. Jenkins alleges that heavy equipment from Chisler Inc. ran over the pipelines before the explosion, causing the methane gas leak.”

“Methane does explode when mixed with the right amount of air.

Not sure what your point is Vi, but if it was that he should have known the methane was there, methane is odorless. That is why old coal miners carried a special lamp that would react to the presence of methane in even minute quantities. I think they held the lamp near the roof to detect methane and close to the ground to detect CO2. Or maybe it was the other way around. The light would flare up for methane or flicker down for CO2, I think. I have one of those lamps in my collection of mining stuff.”

“My point is that (according to your post) the explosion was not caused by poop generated methane but by methane leaking from damaged methane pipelines running under or near the porto-potty.”

“Well, yeah, I figured that was evident. Not sure what the experiment that Swamp Yankee referred to was all about.

No way a crapper would have enough methane to blow it sky high. That's what the vents are for.”

“Actually I heard this story on the radio and they were saying that the guy was suing because there were no warning signs not to smoke - like the poop methane would cause an explosion. I think that's what swamp yankee was reading too.”

“They did run a cool explosion sound effect though.”

“It does sound like a new wrinkle on "Where were you when the $hit hit the fan?"”

“Reminds me of an old guy who died of a heart attack while sitting on the crapper when I was a kid. Evidently he was in there long enough for rigor mortis to set in because they hauled him out in a rigid sitting position. Funny thing is he was such a bastard that the whole town laughed, even his wife.”

“Some of this reminds me of a joke that circularted a few years ago:

>>
>>>Dave,

George W. Bush is met by the Queen at London Heathrow. A 300-foot long red carpet is
stretched out to Air Force One and Mr. Bush strides to a warm but dignified handshake from Queen Elizabeth II.
They ride in a silver 1934 Bentley limousine to the edge of central London where they board an open 17th century coach hitched to six magnificent white matching horses.
As they ride toward Buckingham Palace, each looking sideways and waving to the thousands of cheering Britons lining the streets, all is going well. But, suddenly the right rear horse lets fly with the most horrendous, earth-rending, eye-smarting blast of gastronomic flatulence ever heard in the British Empire, including Bermuda, Tortola and other islands. It shakes the coach.

Uncomfortable, but under control, the two dignitaries do their best to ignore the whole incident, but then the Queen decides that's ridiculous. She turns to Mr. Bush and explains, "Mr. President, please accept my regrets. I'm sure you understand that there are some things that even a Queen cannot control."

George W. Bush, ever the gentleman, replies, "Your Majesty, please don't give the matter another thought. You know, if you hadn't said something, I would have thought it was one of the horses."”

“"Chisler, Inc"

Don't be chisler, now!”

“hey we had a building explod here on SI
guy got killed.
traffic and ferriers service was a MESS!!”

“"comon baby light my fire".”