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Motorist facing charges after using cigarette lighter to check fuel tank
A Slovakian motorist who blew up his car and a petrol station when he used a cigarette lighter to look into his petrol tank is to be charged with endangering public safety.
The 30 year-old, not named by police, says his fuel gauge had broken and he had pulled into the petrol station to see if there was fuel in the tank.
He says he could not see into the tank and used the lighter to allow him to see into the nozzle.
The naked flame ignited the tank and, as the panicked motorist fled, the fire spread and demolished much of the small petrol station in the west Slovak town of Horna Streda.
The motorist was treated for burns and two other people who were badly injured when his car's fuel tank blew up are still in hospital, Slovak media reports.
Story filed: 11:55 Wednesday 28th August 2002
A Slovakian motorist who blew up his car and a petrol station when he used a cigarette lighter to look into his petrol tank is to be charged with endangering public safety.
The 30 year-old, not named by police, says his fuel gauge had broken and he had pulled into the petrol station to see if there was fuel in the tank.
He says he could not see into the tank and used the lighter to allow him to see into the nozzle.
The naked flame ignited the tank and, as the panicked motorist fled, the fire spread and demolished much of the small petrol station in the west Slovak town of Horna Streda.
The motorist was treated for burns and two other people who were badly injured when his car's fuel tank blew up are still in hospital, Slovak media reports.
Story filed: 11:55 Wednesday 28th August 2002