Man set fire, stayed and died

NY Newsday ^ | April 19, 2004 | BART JONES AND ALFONSO CASTILLO

[presidio9]

An intoxicated Davis Park man died after he lit a rug on fire and challenged his roommate to see who could stay in the house on Fire Island longer Saturday night, Suffolk County police said.

Police said Thomas Woods, 59, ignited the rug in his house at 9 Driftwood Walk sometime before 8 p.m. As the fire spread, Woods fired one or two rounds from a pre-World War I Mauser pistol, said Det. Sgt. Ed Fandrey of the Suffolk County homicide squad. Police do not know why he fired the gun.

[presidio9]

I would nominate Woods for a Darwin Award, but based on the fact that he was a 59 year-old man living on Fire Island with his "roommate," there was never much chance of him procreating anyway.

[JennysCool]

ping!

[AlbertWang]

Bummer! I hope the mauser wasn't harmed.

[AlbertWang]

I'm going to need a new set of eyeballs after I get done scrubbing mine with steel wool.

[glorgau]

I knew a couple of guys that got paid to torch somebody's vacation home. They were a couple of "tolly rag" sniffers. "tolly" was whatever they could pour on a rag and inhale to get intoxicated. Well, it turned out that they went up to torch this place for a quick buck and happened to catch themselves on fire (from the "tolly" rags in their hands. They ended up with 3rd degree burns over large parts of their bodies and had to wear sugical masks over their heads - they lost all of their hair - to hold their grafted skin in place for years. Of course, they had horrible scars for the rest of their lives. Didn't get prosecuted for the crime though.

Last I heard, one was dead, and the other I don't know. Real Darwin candidates.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Too bad death won't keep this 'Rat from voting for Kerry this fall.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The "tolly rag" sniffers have got to be the absolute most stupid dopeheads of them all.

[nothingnew]

Guess he won.

FMCDH

[babaloo999]

Just to be clear, you are scrubbing the Mauser with the steel wool. Right? lol

[ClearCase_guy]

I saw a segment on TV awhile ago that focused (IIRC) on slum children in Brazil. Lots of huffers there. One very cute little boy who was living on the steets was very eloquent as to how he would never do that. Look, he said, they are so sad. They stare at nothing and they drool. They have nothing to live for. I would never do that. I want to make a better life for myself.

TV crew then cut to a more recent scene. The cute little boy was a few years older. He was staring into space. And drooling. Real sad.

[Loyalist]

A fellow I went to high school was working at the corner stone just down the road from my parents' house when he suffered a heroin flashback, doused himself with gasoline from a pump out front, and set himself on fire.

No Darwin Award for him; he lived, but lost his nose and lips, and ended up wearing a foam suit to cover his skin grafts for years.