23 evacuated following air mattress explosion in Germany

15 Jul, 2009 16:18 / Updated 15 years ago

It’s sad to be unlucky, but it’s twice as sad when your run of bad luck turns on you neighbors. A man in the German town of Duesseldorf forced the evacuation of a whole block after a ‘poor blast’ of his … air mattress.

45-year-old Brandt B. hoped to spend the day along a river bank with his family but, alas, his air mattress sprung a leak, German express.de reports. Instead of using special mattress glue, the creative German decided to use a tire repair solvent to fix the problem.

After the first stage was completed, he only needed to inflate the mattress. But again, instead of using a hand pump, he trusted it to electricity. However, the mattress exploded after a spark from an electric pump ignited the glue.

The blast caused a wall to collapse in the building. While the man was not injured in the accident, his three-year-old daughter suffered burns to her arm.

Following the explosion, 23 people were evacuated from the building. Damage from the accident is estimated at around 20,000 euros ($28,000).