Restaurant explodes in bid to kill cockroaches
An overzealous attempt to rid a Thai restaurant of cockroaches sparked an explosion that blew up the restaurant in Perth, Western Australia, apart, emergency services said today.
Three men were taken to hospital with burns after they set off 36 cockroach fumigation devices known as bombs – generally aerosol cans filled with chemicals - which apparently exploded after their contents came into contact with an oven pilot light.
John McMillan, manager of Western Australia state’s fire investigations unit, said the huge blast lifted the roof off the Tamarind restaurant in the capital, Perth.
“The restaurant owner has used the principle that if you use twice the soap, you get your hands twice as clean. He’s just overdone it,” McMillan said.
Duncraig fire station officer Kieran Cooper said the blast wrecked the restaurant.
“The back wall’s been blown out, the front window’s been blown out, the ceiling’s caved down, there’re extra wires hanging down, it’s pretty (much) all a mess,” Cooper told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
