Talk about having a bad day
Goldfish Bowl Sends 26 People to Hospital
LONDON (Reuters) - Firefighters on Friday blamed a goldfish bowl for sending 26 people to hospital in Britain.
They believe the bowl may have acted as a magnifying glass which concentrated the sun's rays and set light to a garden shed containing a rat-catcher's potentially noxious chemicals.
The sun's rays are believed to have entered one shed where the goldfish were kept and then passed through to another where chemicals were stored.
The tablets of aluminum phosphide gave off fumes when firemen tried to dampen them down and 18 firefighters, four paramedics and four neighbors were taken to an Oxford hospital suffering from vomiting, nausea and burning chest sensations.
Assistant chief fire officer Lawrie Booth told Friday's Times: ``It is an extremely unusual cause of fire -- a million-to-one chance.''
The goldfish did not survive the conflagration.
Head of Railway Run Over by One of His Trains
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The head of the railway company in the central Asian state of Turkmenistan was killed on Thursday when one of his own trains ran him over, Russia's Interfax news agency quoted local officials as saying.
Interfax quoted a source in the office of the prosecutor-general as saying Khamurat Berdyev, 41, was killed on Thursday morning as he crossed a railway line when a train hit him from behind. Berdyev was appointed in January.
The accident was at the main railway station in Turkmen capital, Ashgabat.
Patient Dies After Throat Tube Set on Fire
ROME (Reuters) - An Italian man died after an operation in which surgeons accidentally set fire to a breathing tube in his throat with a laser they were using to remove a tumor, ANSA news agency reported Thursday.
It said the patient, 56-year-old Armando Borracino, died from internal burns Monday after a 12-day fight for his life in a hospital in the southern city of Salerno.
He underwent the operation on May 30.
``We are truly sorry for what has happened and we offer our condolences to the family of the unfortunate patient,'' Salerno regional health officer Teresa Armato said.
The head of the hospital resigned and three medics were suspended, ANSA said. |
