A Jerusalem woman who really, really wanted a smoke set a man and his car on fire when her request for a cigarette was denied. The incident was captured on a short but terrifying CCTV camera clip, and is a good reminder why not to both smoke at a gas station and be so maliciously stupid.
Israel National News described yesterday’s incident like this:
Police from Jerusalem’s Moriah precinct arrested a woman on suspicion of setting a fire at a gas station on Bethlehem Road Tuesday. Security camera footage shows the woman approaching a man who was fueling his car. She apparently asked him for a cigarette, and he refused. She then pulled out a lighter and put the flame next to the fueling nozzle, causing an immediate fire. The car owner had enough presence of mind to pull the nozzle out of the car, possibly preventing the fire from spreading into the gas pump and causing a huge explosion.
Watching the video, it appears that the woman is as surprised as the Suzuki Splash’s owner about what happened. Which, really, she shouldn’t be, since she, you know, held a lit lighter by a bunch of vaporized gasoline, and the reaction of those two things is pretty well documented. For those of you interested, I’d suggest checking out any Michael Bay film, for a start.
This whole thing is alarming in so many ways — how quickly that car goes up, the fact that someone would be so insane as to torch a car just because a stranger didn’t have/wouldn’t give a cigarette, the fact that there are gas stations in a places I’ve only really heard about in overheard Christmas carols, everything really.
So, lesson here: don’t smoke. And if you do smoke, try not to also be a potentially homicidal lunatic, if possible. If not, then, for fuck’s sake, stay out of gas stations and buy your own damn cigarettes.
UPDATE: Prompted by several commenters, it’s worth mentioning that removing the nozzle from a burning car is not recommended. In fact, it’s likely more fire spread because the nozzle was removed, and, as many have stated, the car otherwise would not have been likely to explode.
(thanks, Josh!)