Blowtorches In The News

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t may not come as much of a surprise that people using blowtorches tend to cause fires. But there seem to be a lot more really stupid people wielding blowtorches than there should be. In Lincolnshire, England, a man burned down his house. The fire department spokesman said the blaze was started by “the careless handling of a blowtorch.” And then there was the other man who was using his blowtorch to kill spiders.

That’s right, a New Jersey man set his house afire while trying to clear spider webs using a blowtorch. The man didn’t realize that in addition to incinerating the cobwebs, the propane torch had also set fire to some dry plants, which carried the fire to his attic.

Firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze, but not before it caused $25,000 in damages. The man and his family are currently displaced, since the fire affected the house’s wiring, and the man has no insurance

And if that isn’t crazy enough (and don’t you think it ought to be?) there was the man in Missouri City who was convicted of torturing a woman using pliers and a blowtorch. Whether this was some bizarre homage to Pulp Fiction (“go to work on the homes here with a pair of pliers and a blow torch. I'm-a get medieval on your ass”) was never made clear. The torturer was found guilty.