90-year-old smoker injured when her oxygen tank causes fire

Derek says: "This woman probably isn't eligible for a Darwin award, but there's a macabre irony to the thought of someone igniting the oxygen tank keeping her alive because she was smoking. It's even worse because, according to the article, this is the second time she's done it." Link

[#1 posted by Tgg161 , October 19, 2007 10:48 AM]

This happens frequently enough that this type of accident has made the 'no longer weird' list at NotW.

[#2 posted by robgonzo , October 19, 2007 11:26 AM]

Wouldn't it be more correct in the headline to say her cigarette caused the fire? Or perhaps "90-year-old smoker injured when her oxygen tank catches fire from cigarette".

[#3 posted by White Noise , October 19, 2007 11:38 AM]

The headline is missing a strategic 'r', which renders it nonsensical.

[#4 posted by TonyB. , October 19, 2007 11:41 AM]

My Grandmother did this to herself twice as well! The condo association almost kicked her out because of it, but because she was a lottery winner she had the money to make them forget about it. It was all very strange when it happened.

[#5 posted by bort , October 19, 2007 11:47 AM]

White Noise: I think it's even more tragic if a ninety year old smoke was injured. Those things age like wine.

[#6 posted by Sam , October 19, 2007 11:50 AM]

An oxygen fire?

Too bad they haven't invented the, you know, whatever device.

[#7 posted by Bryan Price , October 19, 2007 11:51 AM]

My wife's ex does this. Sucking down a cig while partaking of oxygen is just stupid. He just hasn't caught anything on fire.

Yet.

[#8 posted by obeyken , October 19, 2007 12:10 PM]

Not to be a stickler but oxygen itself doesn't actually ignite, right? I believe it's more like an excess of oxygen causes a cigarette to burn much, much faster than it ought to.

[#9 posted by Joe , October 19, 2007 12:30 PM]

Clearly this only underlines the fact that authorities need to ban oxygen. It is odorless, colorless and nicotine-less.

Where are the special interest groups on this one??

[#10 posted by gollux , October 19, 2007 8:51 PM]

This is so common. A woman completely torched her house here and died in the conflagration about six months ago. The cigarettes caused her emphysema in the first place and continued smoking caused her flambe style death in the end. The oxygen served to accelerate the process from a simple smoldering incident to a rather intense fire.

[#11 posted by Phikus , October 20, 2007 1:48 PM]

It's a karma catch clause. If you live to be 90 and are still smoking, it will kill you much faster!