Happy Camper
2003 Honorable Mention
Unconfirmed by Darwin
(Camping Season 2003, Melbourne, Australia) Aussie emergency firefighters were called to extinguish a car fire on the Monash Freeway, a beltway that encircles Melbourne. When the firefighters arrived, they found an agitated young man watching as flames consumed his Ford.
After extinguishing the blaze, the firefighters inspected the small car to find out what had caused the conflagration. First they found that the whole car was completely stuffed with camping gear. There was barely room for the driver. Every space was crammed. Then they opened the hood.
The driver had packed for an extended camping trip, but had run out of room in the small passenger compartment. So he decided to use all that wasted space under the hood, such as the space between the motor and the hot exhaust pipes.
Among the left-over items was a bottle of gas used to fuel the barbecue grill.
Amazingly, the superheated bottle of gas did not explode, and the young man suffered only Ford flambé instead of being blown to bits and collecting the Darwin Award he so richly deserved.
