A nine-year-old boy is dead as the result of a firecracker dropped into a sewer. Reports say he was playing with another boy around 3 pm on Saturday near Fenghu Building in Shenzhen when one of them lit a firecracker and threw it down the drain. The ensuing explosion popped off two manhole covers, one of them flying as high as five meters. The victim, a third-grader in nearby Luohu district, reportedly fell in. His lifeless body was recovered about three hours later.
Surveillance footage captured the exact moment of the explosion. (Apologies for the music in the video; it was in the original Youku clip, below.) The family of the deceased believes that Fenghu supervisors are responsible for the accident and are asking for 500,000 yuan in compensation.
The parents have said that their current concern is giving their son a proper funeral before entering into compensation negotiations.
Really? Compensation for your kid being a dumbass and killing himself? If anything the parents should be charged for the damage.
Agree with Dave
I agree too.People will do anything to get money these days Also, that headline is quite misleading. He wasn’t killed by the “explosion,” he died as a result of it. And his own stupidity. His parents should have to pay the city.
This is a tragedy that occurred due to stupid boyish pranks, of whom many of us has done in the same age timeframe, luckily with less consequences. Instead of sympathizing with the grieving parents, to pile on is so faux pas.
Well the parents might have a point. A small firecracker would not generate the blast seen in the video, more likely it ignited a pocked of methane gas mixed with air (very explosive mixture). Notice the car with the rear tire resting on one manhole is lifted up by the blast. As we can all attest to the sewers in china do tend to smell of rotten eggs a sign of anaerobic bacteria at work.
One could argue that if the sewer was designed and maintained properly that this tragedy would not have happened.
@ Dawei
In every sewer, in every part of the world, methane gas is a problem. It builds up faster in warmer climates, and slower in colder ones, but there is no stopping the build up of gases.
The boys surely knew the gases could explode, because people throw burning stuff (charcoal from shish-kabob cookers, hot ashes from burning ghost money, and firecrackers) down the sewer very commonly in China, and at eleven years old they’ve surely seen this kind of explosion at least once before, or been told about it.
It was a dangerous, stupid stunt, and sadly one of them died for it.
That doesn’t mean anyone should get paid for stupidity.
Laughing my ass off here. . .
Funny pair of kids.
Lets pray it happen to your kids.