Vacuums are utterly wonderful, brush-filled devices full of enough staticky dust, fuzz and debris to make your hair stand on end. Naturally, you do not want to suck a flammable substance such as gasoline into that potentially spark-filled environment. One woman at a Florida gas station learned that lesson the hard way. The explosion-ey way.
A woman using the Shuttle Car Wash in Titusville, Florida, was trying to vacuum spilled gasoline out of her trunk when the vacuum itself exploded, blowing the lid off the machine itself, per local news station WKMG.
As seen in a video from WESH (watch it here), a gas station employee eventually had to put out the inferno with a fire extinguisher as the woman just stood there and stared at the fire.
Thankfully, no one was injured in the explosion. The vacuum needs to be repaired, however, to the tune of $500.
Many Floridians stocked up on gasoline ahead of Hurricane Matthew, which means that there are likely other cars out there that smell a little gassy. Heed this woman’s warning, Florida: do not vacuum gasoline.
Lest we think this is just Florida being Florida, a similar explosion from vacuuming gasoline happened in Texas in April, per The Dallas Morning News. (Or maybe it’s time to admit that Texas is becoming Florida Lite?)
[H/T Kevin!]