A man in his twenties suffered injuries to his face, head and hands in an explosion in a house in Akureyri, north Iceland, on Tuesday when a gas container caught fire. The man is suspected of having been sniffing gas.
There were 25 gas containers inside the house. Captain of the Akureyri fire department, Thorbjörn Haraldsson, told Fréttabladid that smoke divers had been subject to grave danger while extinguishing the fire. They were successful but the house is severely damaged if not completely destroyed.
“These containers explode like mines if they catch fire,” Haraldsson said, explaining that he had been very concerned for the safety of his men. “Not long ago a gas container like that went through a balcony rail after it caught fire.”
The man managed to escape the burning house on his own and call for help. As many as 20 firefighters were called to the scene. “It is just across the street so I watched out the window how the flames shot up from the roof followed by a lot of smoke,” Haraldsson explained.
Police in Akureyri confirmed to Fréttabladid that the man, who was inside the house, had suffered injuries before while sniffing gas. Two years ago he almost died while sniffing gas inside a car with his friend in Fljótsdalur in east Iceland.
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