Domesticating Teenagers

As anyone who has ever had one around the house (or anyone with a good memory of their own days as such) teenage boys are not exactly the most domesticated of creatures. Most parents would be delighted when (even if) they started to show some interest in getting the washing done and so on.

Most, but not all:

In a freak string of mishaps, Sean Davey, 18, left a
washing basket full of clothes on top of the electric cooker. He then
accidentally knocked one of the hob controls, turning on one of the
rings, before going out to meet friends.

The
heated ring set fire to the basket of clothes which, in turn, heated a
nearby bag of shopping that his sister Nicky, 20, had left for her
brother earlier in the day.

And
that caused a can of Sure deodorant to explode with such force that it
not only blew out windows but cracked a wall and even, briefly, lifted
the roof off the bungalow.

Three fire crews
tackled the blaze in the home at Caister-on-Sea near Great Yarmouth,
Norfolk, on Sunday evening. Firemen rescued one of the family’s
labrador dogs while the other one escaped of his own accord and
reappeared, somewhat shaken, eight hours later.

Sean, you just sit right there and I’ll deal with the washing, OK?

In

3 responses

  1. Nice pay-off on that story:”Last night Sean and his parents were staying with friends”. My, how we laughed.

  2. And that caused a can of Sure deodorant to explode with such force that it not only blew out windows but cracked a wall and even, briefly, lifted the roof off the bungalow.
    Bollocks. Either the roof of the bungalow did not lift off, or something other than the Sure deodorant caused it. If it hit something directly it will cause a fair bit of damage, but the volume of the can and its pressure is not nearly enough to blow out windows and lift a roof off.

  3. Yes, that did sound a bit iffy. When I was a young tearaway my friends and I would have a jolly jape by putting aerosol cans in bonfires. They made a pretty hair-raising bang, but to the extent of property damage? Nope, unless this can of deodorant was the size of a fire extinguisher. It’s an interesting side-effect of the Montreal Protocol that safe, non-flammable CFCs were replaced by butane in aerosols, but even so this is way over the top.
    But seriously, what sort of goon puts a load of clothing on top of a stove?

Leave a Reply

Discover more from Tim Worstall

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading