Apparently Pepper Spray and flames do not mix…or mix way too much.
Soccer match in Poland between two regional teams. European fans have this thing about bringing fireworks and road flares to the games. A quick check tell us that the capsicum is mixed with propylene glycol for delivery. I am guessing that since propylene glycol is an alcohol….
In other news, you can now pepper spray and burn any spider at the same time.
Burning eyes. Burning sinuses. 3rd degree burns everywhere else.
Just shoot at me it’ll be safer.
Sometimes there are people who just won’t learn any way but the hard way.
I think it’s fake. Propylene glycol is not flammable under standard temperature and pressure. It has to be heated to a high temperature before it’ll ignite. It’s anti-freeze. Well, it’s the pet safe anti-freeze. The hard stuff is ethylene glycol.
The only thing that could be flammable is the propellant, which pressurizes the can. Often that is propane. But the propellant wouldn’t ignite that far away, and I doubt they would use propane in pepper spray. More likely they would use CO2 as the propellant.
Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw8_ywFbnO0
Lower left corner, around 1:40.
Cop didn’t read the safety label apparently.
News articles say the guy only suffered minor injuries/burns.
Thanks for the update 🙂
“In other news, you can now pepper spray and burn any spider at the same time.”
“Spider.” Yes.
My first thought was “Unintended Consequences?”, but then I considered the situation and concluded that it was just a case of “Police Deterrent”. Did you notice that most of the people in the crowd are completely ignoring the incident?
Well if you watch the video linked above you’ll notice that the pepper burst and resulting flash were extremely brief. The photog managed to snap the pic at the post dramatic moment out of the 0.5-0.8sec it lasted.
People haven’t had time to react yet.
There’s still a lot of pepper/OC spray out there that is alcohol-based. Spray that at a lit ignition source, and you have a brief fireball or flamethrower. Taser someone already soaked in, but unresponsive to, alcohol-based OC spray, and you have a human torch.
The propylene glycol is, I believe, a change in the past several years in response to several meth’d-up offenders turning into human matchsticks when a Taser was added to already-applied OC. Many state-side police departments have already switched over, however. Apparently, the same cannot be said for overseas cops.
I am trying to remember the exact episode, however I cannot. I do remember Mythbusters doing an episode where they tazed a mannequin after pepper-spraying it and were able to get the shirt to ignite with significant flames.
I do definitely agree that spiders deserve the pepper-flame death!