Power-Dressing Man Leaves Trail of Destruction

• Posted by Geoffrey G. Gussis on September 19th, 2005


• Filed in Weird/Wacky/Funny

As a corporate counsel, you probably have worried about employment practices and Sarbanes-Oxley liability issues - but have you ever stopped to think about static cling gone wrong? Yahoo News reports on a bizarre story that is sure to have risk managers and insurers scratching their heads:

"An Australian man built up a 40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his clothes as he walked, leaving a trail of scorched carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to evacuate a building. Frank Clewer, who was wearing a woolen shirt and a synthetic nylon jacket, was oblivious to the growing electrical current that was building up as his clothes rubbed together.

When he walked into a building in the country town of Warrnambool in the southern state of Victoria Thursday, the electrical charge ignited the carpet.

"It sounded almost like a firecracker," Clewer told Australian radio Friday.

"Within about five minutes, the carpet started to erupt."

Employees, unsure of the cause of the mysterious burning smell, telephoned firefighters who evacuated the building."

Link: Power-dressing man leaves trail of destruction - Yahoo! News.