Aussie Charged With 40,000 Volts

SYDNEY (Reuters) – 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.

"There were several scorch marks in the carpet, and we could hear
a cracking noise — a bit like a whip — both inside and outside the building," said
fire official Henry Barton.

Clewer, who after leaving the building discovered he had scorched a piece
of plastic on the floor of his car, returned to seek help from the firefighters.

"We tested his clothes with a static electricity field meter and measured
a current of 40,000 volts, which is one step shy of spontaneous combustion,
where his clothes would have self-ignited," Barton said.

I’ve been firefighting for over 35 years and I’ve never come across anything
like this," he said.

from Reuters