I live in Finland, and as you might have heard, we have here this little thing called 'sauna'. It is 'common knowledge' that throwing a bit of beer to the hot rokcs called 'kiuas' produces a nice scent. Now, some fellows thought that if beer was nice, it would be really fun to throw some home-made alcohol called 'pontikka' in instead. One of them, the one sitting higher, closer to the roof passed out almost immediately. These guys survived only because the 'smarter' of the two was standing next to the door, and fell towards it. He managed to yell for help once before passing out.

And for the backround; as any Finn could tell you, pontikka has approximately 40% of pure alcohol in it, and is, if made wrong, dangerous to drink, let alone breath right to your bloodstream through lungs.

Submitted on 12/28/2004

Submitted by: Anonymous
Reference: -

Copyright © 2004 DarwinAwards.com

Daniel said:
Neutral: Urban Legend
As you say, an urban legend. I think it more likely that a 40% alcohol solution would burst into flames.

Jack said:
Neutral: Urban Legend
I'm not so sure that the alcohol would burst into flames in the absense of an open flame, but the vapor would surely boil off almost immediately and rise to the top of the sauna. A good story.

Charles said:
Neutral: Urban Legend
There is a recently-invented machine that vaporizes alcohol, and is said to get you higher quicker on less alcohol. I think this is just barely possible, if they had actually thrown a whole litre of pontikka on the rocks...

Jason said:
Neutral: Urban Legend
To Jack's point. Yes alcohol can burst into flame if enough heat is applied. Good story. Believable enough since I have seen people do just that, although, not with these kinds of results.

Jorge said:
Neutral: Urban Legend