Racoon Fireball Myth

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Raccoon Fireball The myth about a man launching himself out of a drainage pipe in order to kill a raccoon is false because a man cannot fit comfortably in a drainage pipe, the power from the gasoline in the pipe would dissolve not shoot him two hundred feet in the air, drainage pipes are open on both ends, which mean, the explosion would go out both ends, cutting the force in half and being that close to a big explosion like that would cause more than a few minor injuries. In Carbon County, Pennsylvania, there was a group of men getting drunk and shooting off firearms on the backyard patio of Irving Michaels, who was twenty seven. The men saw a raccoon across the yard and decided to use it as target practice. Apparently, the alcohol blurred their vision and made them have terrible aim. Even after the group shot about thirty five shots, the raccoon escaped into a drainage pipe approximately one hundred feet away from the patio. Mr. Michaels became adamant on killing the animal, so, he ran over to the drainage pipe and poured some gasoline down the drainage pipe, intending to smoke him out. Mr. Michaels tried several times to light the fuel but, after pouring the whole five gallons of gasoline down the pipe, he realized it would not light. Irving wasn’t about to give up that easily. He decided to slide feet first about fifteen feet down into the drainage pipe so he could toss the match. The explosion from the gasoline shot Mr. Michaels back to the patio where he started. He left the pipe like “a Polaris missile leaves a submarine” said one of the drunkards. Mr. Michaels was “launched directly over his own home, right over the heads of his astonished friends, onto his front lawn” says Mikkelson. Thankfully, Mr. Michaels only suffered minor injuries from the explosion. (Mikkelson, “Coon Cheese”) What can we take from this legend? Don’t try to kill an innocent
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