Everybody has eventual lacks of precaution of or excess of confidence: don’t use the seatbelt as we are going “around the corner”, leave the kitchen ring fired because we go out “just a moment”, etc.

Something similar should be thinking the electricians of a firm that was subcontracted by a paving factory in Paredes de Nava, Palencia (Spain), to work in their installations. They were welding some spotlights at the ceiling without caring about what was below. The sparks fell into some open drums full of magnesium and started a fire. Fortunately for them, they didn’t take the worst part.

It maybe would have been an anecdotic, shouldn’t have been for how the other workers reacted. Either they had a severe brain fade due to panic or didn’t attend to the safety course when they went to enter a factory which uses that kind of products. Or maybe there weren’t such classes. The fact is that they quickly went for some water to end the fire, but they didn’t seem to know how water and magnesium react together.

Maybe the lesser of the effects was the general spreading of the fire, although the burnings weren’t surely pleasant, but the explosion produced by the reaction killed one of them.

Apart from the killed man, whose genes were instantly washed away from the pool, four other workers were affected by the flying flames, two of them very seriously. It’s a pity that Lamarck’s theories weren’t as true as Darwin’s ones, because in that case the gene pool would also be improved by the descendants of the wounded workers, who would birth knowing about chemistry and safety measures a little more than their parents, making ours a less dangerous world.

The original story, from the Spanish diary ABC can be read in the first three paragraphs of this news report: http://www.abc.es/hemeroteca/historico-14-11-2007/abc/Sociedad/un-muerto-y-ocho-heridos-graves-en-diferentes-accidentes-laborales_1641351019105.html

In case that an accurate translation of the original news is needed, you can contact me.

Submitted on 11/21/2007

Submitted by: Alejandro Meirinhos
Reference: Spanish Diary "ABC" - www.abc.es - 11/14/2007 - Sociedad (Society) Section - Full URL included.

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
This could definitely use a better translation/writeup, but welding above explosive chemicals sounds like pretty much a no-brainer to me. Thanks, Alejandro!

James said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
I've seen far worse translations, and the two magic words..."magnesium" and "water" are all I need to determine eligibility! Yes, this was plain dumb!