Man torches car battling frost

Related Topics

BERLIN | Wed Jan 27, 2010 2:40pm EST

BERLIN (Reuters) - A 76-year-old German man trying to thaw out his car incinerated it instead when he decided to speed things up by putting a blow heater under the hood.

"He burned the vehicle out completely," said a spokesman for police in the western city of Hildesheim. Police said the man left the heater on next to the frozen windshield washer tank and returned indoors. Shortly afterwards he heard two explosions and returned to find the car ablaze.

He alerted fire services, who arrived in time to prevent the flames from destroying his house. Including charring of the building, total damages were estimated at 40,000 euros

($56,240).

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Steve Addison)

Comments (0)
This discussion is now closed. We welcome comments on our articles for a limited period after their publication.