A man narrowly avoided serious injury when a lighter blew up in his face while trying to light a cigarette, and a large fireball engulfed his head.
CCTV footage shows the moment the unlucky smoker, surnamed Wang, becomes victim to a faulty lighter while out in his yard in Zhumadian, in central China’s Henan Province, at around 12:30pm on 26th July.
In the video, Wang, dressed in a black T-shirt and black shorts, steps outside for a smoke.
As he puts the cigarette in his mouth, he tries lighting it with a small plastic lighter.
Almost instantly, he is shocked by a loud blast and a sudden burst of flame when the lighter explodes in his face.
He immediately drops it on the ground and spits the cigarette out, then rushes over to a nearby faucet and splashes some water over his head.
His hair and beard got slightly scorched, but fortunately, Wang did not receive any burns or injuries.
Wang later said: “I haven’t encountered this kind of situation before.
“I don’t know what the reason was. I only know that some gas leaked at the moment of lighting.
“The lighter is not broken, but there is a small crack [where the gas likely leaked from].”
The video of the scary incident went viral after he uploaded it as a warning to Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, where it boasts over 170,000 likes and more than 60,000 comments.
Wang wrote in the caption: “I learned that plastic lighters are hidden dangers at the cost of my hair and beard, so I’m telling you all to be careful when using them.”
Some users shared similar experiences in the comments, while others suggested it might be time to go back to using matches.
And user ‘Jsut Lovu Myself To’ wrote: “I heard it from next door and thought our neighbourhood was being bombed.”
