🐱 Woman injured after mistaking dynamite for candle

https://www.wowktv.com/news/nationa...fter-mistaking-dynamite-for-candle/1425047374

A woman is injured after Bridgeport police say she lit dynamite thinking it was a candle.

City officials say a woman is injured after she thought she was lighting a candle when it was actually a quarter stick of dynamite. As a result, they say her hands received a significant amount of damage and she was taken to the hospital.

Authorities say a second device was found inside the home on Lindley Street in Bridgeport.

As a precaution, officials say homes on either side of the house were evacuated. They say the house and the surrounding area was searched.

Authorities say state police, state fire marshal, state police bomb squad, Bridgeport police, and fire, along with the city fire marshals office responded to the scene.

According to officials, the bomb squad may take explosives for detonation at Seaside Park or West Beach.

 

[zedkissed60]

Police say that after the family at 1248 Lindley Street lost power during a thunderstorm Thursday night, they tried going to Home Depot for emergency lights. Home Depot was closed.

The family then remembered that when they bought the house two years prior, there were a couple of, what they thought, candles in the basement by the previous owners of the home.

The 30-year-old mother of two children tried to light what she thought was the candle. It turned out to be a quarter stick of dynamite. She suffered extreme injuries to one of her hands, including the potential loss of more than one of her fingers.

She also suffered serious injuries to her face, and was rushed to Bridgeport Hospital. She was since then taken to Yale-New haven Hospital where she currently remains for treatment.

The two children, and the woman’s husband wasn’t hurt.
https://web.archive.org/web/2018090...lows-up-hand-mistaking-dynamite-for-a-candle/

The woman's name is Fany Azalea Martinez.

https://www.facebook.com/azaleajorge (http://archive.is/wDWAj)
https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/fany-martinez_id_G1191820443504095908 (http://archive.is/5igZE)
https://www.facebook.com/abdias.martinez.3 (http://archive.is/alGkf)
https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/abdias-oscar-martinez_id_G-6753636205568151852 (http://archive.is/ASQoO)

Fany is a licensed hairdresser/cosmetician.

https://www.elicense.ct.gov/Lookup/LicenseLookup.aspx

The previous owner of the home is Oscar Aguirre, who bought it in 2002. He now lives in Punta Gorda FL.

http://gis.vgsi.com/bridgeportct/Parcel.aspx?Pid=25869 (http://archive.is/eQtmC)
https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/oscar-a-aguirre_id_G6271603037761648852 (http://archive.is/FhgEv)
https://web.archive.org/web/20180907183249/https://www.mylife.com/oscar-aguirre/oscaraguir26876mb
https://flvoters.com/pages/a101366.html (http://archive.is/JS7zg)

Fany's older child is from a prior relationship.

http://civilinquiry.jud.ct.gov/CaseDetail/PublicCaseDetail.aspx?DocketNo=FBTFA094030178S

 

[kcbbq]

So you think it was really just fireworks and the authorities/reporter were confused in calling it Dynamite, correct?

Yeah, I am pretty certain the ATF severely controls the distribution of Dynamite. That was why I was surprised at the idea that it was ever in someone else's home. The woman had no idea it was in her home apparently, still the fact it was in her home means someone somewhere connected to her has a lot of explaining to do.

If it was just fireworks it would better explain why she is alive, though.

You used to come across it in old barns and basements, I imagine in some rural areas there's still some out there. You could buy it at the hardware store back in the day. I guess it's possible to have some show up in a house, but as old as it would have been it wouldn't have been somewhere out in the open, old dynamite is scary unsafe for more reasons than someone using it as a candle.

 

[Haramburger]

I've never met a woman that's dumb enough to confuse a candle wick's flame for a cannon fuse's sparkle, but then I think I probably just haven't looked hard enough.

 

[AP 297]

You used to come across it in old barns and basements, I imagine in some rural areas there's still some out there. You could buy it at the hardware store back in the day. I guess it's possible to have some show up in a house, but as old as it would have been it wouldn't have been somewhere out in the open, old dynamite is scary unsafe for more reasons than someone using it as a candle.

Thanks to @zedkissed60 's research links, we now know the house was built in 1936. It could have always been there.

The idea of it being fireworks sounds a bit more plausible at this point, but with the house being that old; you really never know.

 

[kcbbq]

Thanks to @zedkissed60 's research links, we now know the house was built in 1936. It could have always been there.

The idea of it being fireworks sounds a bit more plausible at this point, but with the house being that old; you really never know.

You're not wrong, I just am stuck on how little damage there was. Possibly losing one finger just makes dynamite seem iffy to me.

That little damage (even a quarter stick salute is 15g of flash powder, not trivial) makes me think she found it, set it down, and kept trying to get flame from it. If it was an old, paper salute the ends probably were sealed with wax, so thinking candle is less stupid. Wouldn't flame, kept trying, bang.

 

[not william stenchever]

My dad is pretty old and long ago he used to blow up stumps with actual quarter sticks of dynamite. Everyone saying that this is the firework type of quarter stick are probably right, because if it was dynamite they would at least look like this:

 

[Rumpled Foreskin]

I mentioned this in chat, so I’ll throw it on here for posterity. First I’ll put this link here:
https://kiwifarms.is/threads/704-pounds-of-dynamite-and-400-blast-caps-are-stolen.42137/
Months ago, tons of dynamite was stolen in PA. Some of it was found, but not all. My theory is that the terrorist looking husband stole the dynamite to do some terroristic shit with, and the wife thought a stick of dynamite was a candle. To me, buying a house with dynamite isn’t out of the question, just highly unlikely.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

If only she had mistaken a stick of dynamite for a cigar.

Oh well.

 

[RG 448]

When life imitates art and the art in question is a Loony Tunes cartoon

It’s easy to laugh at this, but the injury was very serious. Doctors had to surgically rotate her duck beak back around to the front of her face.

 

[sadstuck]

It was dark, okay?

 

[idosometimes]

I wasn't even aware that dynamite with an actual wick still existed. I thought you had to have a blasting cap and some expensive machine to set that shit off.

Also, why was there dynamite just randomly sitting around a house? What a strange story.

Probs fireworks. Actual dynamite contains nitroglycerin. What made dynamite such a success was that it had the blasting power of NG, but was stable because that NG was soaked up by clay and stabilizers in the tube.

This is probably not old dynamite stored somewhere either. Old dynamite had a pretty short shelf life because after a year or so the nitroglycerin would start leaking out of the tube. Some would crystallize on the tube itself while the rest would pool below (MacGyver had this problem when the oil well was on fire). This outside the tube NG is very sensitive to heat and shocks, which makes it very dangerous. Newer stuff is much more stable longer due to better manufacturing to keep nitroglycerin where they want it, but it is harder for regular people to obtain dynamite now. They do not just hand it out to anyone like they did in the '30s.

 

[TowinKarz]

T-N-T

That's a funny way to spell "candle".........

I'm with the crowd saying it had to be black-powder fireworks, a quarter stick of dynamite in your hand will blow your arm off up to the shoulder and knock your now-dead body accross the room, removing your clothes in the process....

An M80 held in hand is much more likely to give the kind of survivable trauma described.

 

[KO 864]

Is everyone taking stupid pills this year? Life has imitated parody, now cartoons, what's next, B Moves?

Since all my jokes have been taken I'll leave a thread theme here

 

[melty]

(MacGyver had this problem when the oil well was on fire)

See the rest of your post sounds really plausible but now I wonder if you got all your dynamite knowledge from watching MacGuyver and I'm not sure I can trust you.

 

[TowinKarz]

Old sticks of dynamite "sweating" nitro really does happen, though..... so even MacGyver was right from time to time.... and the "put out a burning oil well with explosives" trick was also not only feasible, but the way it's done in real life. The explosion disrupts the flame-front of the fire AND consumes all the available oxygen in the immediate area, snuffing it out like blowing on a candle (how ironic!)

 

[Club Sandwich]

You could buy it at the hardware store back in the day.

you still can, although not in quantity post 9/11. what is controlled by the FEL (federal explosives license) is the blasting cap and detonators. i have a small magazine of high explosives and they are not something easily gotten after the 1960's, but you do still see it available for use to remove rocks, tree stumps, et c.

this is much the same as ammonium nitrate and fuel oil - you can still get it, but not in quantity and they track the purchase of it and regulate the sales.

Spoiler: explosives for fun and profit

a stick of TNT and a stick of dynamite are two different things, and dynamite sweat is really incredibly dangerous after a couple years. TNT does not sweat due to stabilizers in the explosive compound, dynamite sweats and the condensate forms crystals on the surface of the explosive (nitroglycerin has a thaw cycle around 40-50 degrees F where it shrinks and desensitizes, then expands and sensitizes, the moisture eventually creating the condensate on the surface) which are shock sensitive.

shock can be as little as touching it with a feather or breathing on it with warm air.

given that an actual stick of dynamite is about 8 inches long, and 1.5 inches wide, encased in cardboard sleeves with a ring of foil, foam, or more cardboard (impermeable usually and waxed), and weighs a half troy pound (6.5 ounces). unless her idea of a candle is something the size of a dildo, they aren't easily mistaken for candles.

also fuses don't necessarily spark, hiss, or fume. visco and safety fuses are a blackpowder core wrapped in textile - the sparking is metallic impurities in the powder going off during the burn. hissing is often outgassing (burn some plastic to get a similar effect, or heat up your vinyl dashboard in your car and watch the windshield get a layer of waxy outgassing compounds). fuses fume when the textile wrapping burns if it's cheap shitty material.

most modern explosives use visco, safety fuses, an electric fuse, or det cord / plastic igniter cord (PIC). while i do have a variety of explosives, i'm not in demolitions and do not have a FEL, i mostly deal with grenades and AT weapons, so old explosives and modern blasting stuff i'm probably not the best to ask.

 

[1Tonka_Truck]

It was probably a 1/4 stick equivalent of flash powder. These fireworks are readily available without any license in states with lax firework regulations.

 

[CIA Nigger]

How long before somebody does this on YouTube for views.

"Planting Dynamite in Birthday Cake (GONE WRONG)"