back to article South African survives exploding fridge attack

It's been suspiciously quiet of late on the murderous white goods front, but confirmation that your kitchen is still out to get you comes in the form of a chilling exploding fridge attack in South Africa. According to the Pretoria Times, Adrian Coetzee, of Silver Lakes, Pretoria, "narrowly escaped death" on Wednesday when the …

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  1. Ron Enderland
    Black Helicopters

    Not unusual

    I've had refrigerators explode, microwave ovens melt down, and once spawned a small black hole with a matter/antimatter blast involving a toaster oven.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    one for the BMA

    Perhaps the British Medical Association should add this to its proposed alcoholic beverage warnings: Your refrigerator may suddenly explode, killing you and forcing your survivors to make their libations with room-temperature beverages, or at least make a run to the corner store.

    (Of course, this may work better in the states, where we prefer our beer cold.)

  3. Richard
    Boffin

    The housekeeper

    ...didn't look like Sigourney Weaver by any chance?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not the first

    My fridge tried to kill me too, it formed a dastardy cabal with a bowl of spag bol and cultivated bacteria unknown to science. Boy was I ill. Scared I was going to die? Worse, I was scared I was going to live.

  5. Daniel B.
    Joke

    Wrong setting on fridge!

    I think the guy had one of those 'intelligent' fridges; so when he set the 'ice' configuration, the fridge proceeded to 'ice' his user!

  6. Alan Parsons
    Joke

    @AC One for the BMA

    "(Of course, this may work better in the states, where we prefer our beer cold.)"

    You like your beer cold because 'Mercan beer is like having sex in a canoe - they're both f*cking close to water.

    In the words of the legendary Hobgoblin T-shirt

    What's the matter lager boy - afraid you'll taste something?

  7. rundata
    Pirate

    @ Anonymous Coward

    "(Of course, this may work better in the states, where we prefer our beer cold.)"

    Typical dumb yank responce ay..

    I dont know one person that would even consider drinking a less than cold beer.

    Where do you yanks get this false information from??

    Then again what else is to be expected from the land of ignorance....

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    @ rundata

    Dosen't that infer that your just as ignorant for lowering yourself to the level of the yanks?

    Oh wait.... I'm trying to use logic on a drunk/snob.

    X O D

    I'll go get my coat now.

  9. Ron Enderland

    @rundata

    My apologies, rundata. We yanks are brainless, wife-beatin', God-believin'-in, nose-pickin', butt-scratchin', ignorant hicks without a trace of sophistication like you Brits have, especially the soccer fanatics ;-)

  10. rundata
    Go

    Glad to hear it..

    @ Coward: Ignorance "Ignorance is the condition of being uninformed or uneducated, lacking knowledge or information"

    My responce was not uninformed, uneducated, lacking of knowledge or information... So I guess I didnt lower myself :)

    @ Ron Enderland

    My apologies for the generalisation of "yank"

    But yeah I Totally agree with you, thanks for the comment back ;)

  11. Hilary Curtis
    Flame

    A boringly rational explanation

    I bet he was keeping some kind of flammable solvent in the fridge - people do that because they think it's safer than out in the heat but they're wrong, wrong, wrong. Vapour pressure builds up in the enclosed space, and then instantly ignites with a tiny spark - usually from the thermostat mechanism switching the power back on.

    When I was a graduate student in chemistry there was a compulsory "safety" training demonstration which included going out to a field where the fire brigade blew a few old fridges sky high just to remind us _never_ to put flammable liquids in any fridge that didn't have the switching mechanism specially sealed into a gas-tight component (as the lab ones did). That was a lot of fun, though maybe not quite as good as learning to extinguish fires or making cotton wool explode by soaking it in liquid air before putting a light to it. Those were the days. Bet they don't do that kind of safety training now ... much too dangerous.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Serves him right

    "...blowing food and shrapnel from his four-month-old fridge across the room"

    Who keeps shrapnel in the fridge, I ask you?

  13. kns2c
    Coat

    Exposed

    @Ron Enderland

    You can't possibly be a yank as you exhibit a level of sarcasm unknown here in the land of the free (not beer). Real yanks would never admit such terrible things about themselves.

  14. Dave

    Missing the Obvious

    I bet it was running Windows for Refrigerators. You know, the one that automatically orders in new stuff to replace what you've removed from the fridge. I got fed up with mine ordering new mould cultures every time I tried cleaning it out, so I swapped it for an Open Sauce fridge. This one lets me compile my own meals from its contents, be they English, Indian, Chinese or any other language, all using readily-available recipes.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    @rundata

    > My responce was not uninformed, uneducated, lacking of knowledge or information... So I guess I didnt lower myself :)

    Well, this one was uninformed, uneducated, and lacking of knowledge and information about the correct spelling of "response" and the need for an apostrophe in "didn't"... :-(

  16. Dave

    @kns2c

    Of course he's a yank, he gave it away by use of the term "soccer" instead of football. For the unenlightened, football is a game played primarily with the feet. Any modifications to the rules require use of a descriptive prefix such as "rugby", "gaelic", "American", etc.

  17. Colonel32

    @Ron

    "without a trace of sophistication like you Brits have, especially the Liverpool fanatics ;-)"

    Fixed.

  18. Steve Evans
    Coat

    @kns2c

    Land of the free?

    Errr, have you checked that recently?

    Mines the nice red one, oh and the musket

  19. GFK1

    Not the first...

    Well, he wouldn't have been the first to be knocked off by his fridge, sadly...

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10513733

  20. Mark Pawelek

    Environmentally safe!

    I bet it was one of those modern 'green' fridges. They're called Green because the refrigerants are supposed to be environmentally safe. By 'environmentally safe' they mean safe for mother earth - as in not a threat to global warming or the ozone layer. They don't mean environmentally safe for the poor bugger who has to use them. They will be using hydrocarbon gases as refrigerants, which, when mixed with air, are explosive.

  21. Andus McCoatover
    Coat

    @ serves him right

    "Who keeps shrapnel in the fridge, I ask you?"

    Priceless!!!

    Now, can you pay for a new keyboard? Mine's got snorted coffee in it!!!

  22. Chris C

    @rundata

    "Where do you yanks get this false information from??"

    The same place the rest of the world gets the notion that the US is still "land of the free" and "home of the brave", that the US people are accurately represented by their president, and that we in the US have a great selection of broadband providers.

  23. David Pollard
    Thumb Up

    @ Hilary Curtis

    "When I was a graduate student in chemistry there was a compulsory "safety" training demonstration... Those were the days. Bet they don't do that kind of safety training now "

    Yeah, and they wonder why fewer youngsters are choosing to study science these days.

  24. Kanhef

    @ Hilary Curtis

    It is a shame they don't do that anymore. Nothing teaches you the proper respect for chemicals like seeing how large a fireball they can produce. Same with tools and how quickly they can remove body parts. I remember a (licensed!) fireworks technician who forgot his gloves when handling a misfired incendiary device. The amount of damage to his face shield was impressive. His hands took months to heal. And a large community of pyros will never work without gloves again.

  25. Pete
    Joke

    IRA are back in business?

    The Irish Refrigerator Army.

  26. James Dore
    Paris Hilton

    Is this some kind of South African innuendo?

    "Knocking up a milkshake with his back to the fridge"?

    Paris has knocked up a couple of milkshakes in her time, I'll bet.

  27. Ron Enderland

    @all

    I regretted the soccer term as soon as I hit Submit.

    Perhaps if mom and dad hadn't been so closely related...

  28. Basil Fernie
    Thumb Down

    Unfortunately,

    spoiling a good story is tha fact that there is no Pretoria Times newspaper. We have a Pretoria News and a Sunday Times (actually from Johannesburg, but still). So which was it, assuming there was indeed such a story? My vote goes to the more sensationalist Sunday Times. Nothing ever happens in Pretoria.

    Regarding Yanks: according to the latest TV ad, they think South Africa is somewhere in Mexico, so they probably would not be able to distinguish between Pretoria and Johannesburg. Suspicion thus falls on a Yank journalist trying to generate a few more column-inches. Ashlee Vance?

  29. Stevie

    Windows????

    More likely it was running some sort of freeware 'equivalent' the Linuxloonz are always droning on about as being "just as good". I've been caught in only slightly less dramatic fiascos as a result of managers buying *that* one more than once.

    Luckily my fridge runs OS2200. Guarranteed to run for decades without trouble.

    :o)

  30. Stuart
    Jobs Halo

    Switch

    "I bet it was running Windows for Refrigerators"

    I made the switch too, but got an iFridge. I can't get as many different meals as your open source fridge, but each one looks fantastic. It never explodes and is 10 times whiter* and shiner than the average fridge.

    * Also available in black.

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