Friday, May 18, 2012

The Burning Rock Mystery...!

Now this story is different than anything I've ever heard!

Must have been a real surprise to everyone involved, mainly the poor lady whose shorts were on fire! This just goes to show, Mother Nature can be "mother-in-law mean" when she wants!

Woman suffers severe burns after rocks collected during beach visit IGNITE in her pocket

PUBLISHED: 04:24 EST, 17 May 2012 | UPDATED: 07:09 EST, 17 May 2012

A woman has had to undergo surgery on her leg after rocks collected by her children, during a day trip to a local beach, may have spontaneously combusted in her pocket.

The 43-year-old woman, who remains unnamed, had enjoyed a day with her family at Trestles Beach, San Diego. During the visit, her children had collected seven unusual-looking rocks - orange and green in colour - and the woman had put them in the right pocket of her cargo shorts to carry home.


Captain Marc Stone, a spokesman for Orange County Fire Authority, explained that the woman began to feel intense heat emanating from her pocket as she was standing in the kitchen of her San Clemente home.

Her clothing and skin began to burn as the heat intensified, and she also suffered second-degree burns to her hand as she tried to remove the rocks from her pocket.

Her husband also suffered second-degree burns to his hand as he tried to help her. Eventually she managed to remove the shorts but the rocks burnt through the fabric and continued to smoulder on the kitchen's wooden floor - filling the home with smoke.


Captain Stone said authorities were conducting tests on the collected rocks, but results were not expected for a couple of weeks.

He said: 'There is phosphorous that naturally occurs on the sand at the beach, but no one has ever heard of pants catching fire.'

Phosphorus in rocks, or phosphorite, is usually deposited by sediment - dissolved phosphorus from continental weathering that is brought to the oceans by rivers and streams.

Trestles Beach, where the family were enjoying their day out, is at the mouth of the San Mateo Creek - the beach gets its name from a wooden bridge that spanned the creek.

It's not hard to imagine that, over millions of years, dissolved phosphorus has been deposited in the rocks in the Trestles Beach area.

It has been suggested that, if the rocks did contain phosphorite, they could have been subjected to friction in the woman's pocket as she walked - leading to a chemical chain reaction that ignited them.

Phosphorus ignites when it is exposed to oxygen, which is why the substance must be kept in oil in laboratories.

Captain Stone said he spoke to the paramedic who treated the woman's injuries before taking her and her husband to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana.

He added: 'He's been on numerous calls for 27 years. He's never seen anything like it.'

Staff at the Western Medical Center confirmed that a woman suffering second- and third-degree burns to her right thigh was admitted on Saturday, and that she is undergoing treatment.

She and her husband were also treated for second-degree burns to their hands.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2145713/Woman-suffers-severe-burns-rocks-collected-beach-visit-IGNITE-pocket.html#ixzz1vBXuqwMq


I don't know what else I can say, except I will be very careful from now on about what I bring back from the beach! How about you?

Coffee on the patio this morning, with maybe with some gravy and biscuits!

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's hard to believe no matter how true it is! Poor woman! Good to know that this actually can happen!

By the way, Captain Stone, could there be a more appropriate name in this case :-)

Have a great day!
Christer.

linda m said...

that is one weird story. You had better believe I am going to be more careful about what I pick up from now on. Have a great weekend.

MamaHen said...

Kinda makes you think of the term 'hot pants' in a whole new light! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

40% Chance of Shannon said...

Okay, GREAT story!! I love that the captains name was "Stone"! Are you going to post a follow-up when they find the results? I'd like to know if they turned out to be alien rocks, lol.

HermitJim said...

Hey Christer...
Strange things are happening all over, it seems!

Truth can be stranger than fiction!

Thanks for coming over this morning!


Hey Linda...
You and I will both watch what we pick up! Last thing I need is fore my pants to catch on fire!

I appreciate you coming by today!


Hey Anne...
I just knew that someone would say that! Too good to pass up, for sure!

Thanks, friend, for coming by this morning!


Hey Shannon...
Good to see you!

I'll keep watch for a follow-up to this one, believe me!

Thanks so much for dropping by!

JO said...

This story was on the news last night. Wierd stuff.

I hope there isn't wind on your patio. Its blowing like mad here. Fire danger is very high and there are fires already.

Dizzy-Dick said...

It is not nice to steal from Mother Nature. She has ways of fighting back.

HermitJim said...

Hey JoJo...
No wind here right now! In fact, it's still and hot, headed back up to the 90s today!

Sorry to hear about the fire threat! Be careful!

Thanks, sweetie, for dropping by this morning!


Hey Dizzy...
She always has a way of showing us who is really the boss!

Thanks for the visit, buddy!

Duke said...

I wonder if there was something else in her pocket which set off this reaction. Seems it would be easy to combine the rocks again and see what happens.

HermitJim said...

Hey Duke...
As long as it's someone elses' pocket other than mine that's used!

Thanks for coming by this morning!

BBC said...

Wish I could find some rocks like that.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it was the matches in her pocket that set her shorts aflame!

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