Beer keg explosion kills 1 at party

Associated Press
Oct. 23, 2006 07:19 AM


NEW MILFORD, Conn. - Investigators were trying to determine who tossed a beer keg into a burning barrel at a party, causing a deadly explosion that sent metal shards slicing through a crowd of people.

The explosion early Sunday killed Sean M. Caselli, 22, of New Milford. Seven other people were taken to hospitals with burns and shrapnel wounds, police said. Caselli was struck in the neck by a piece of flying metal.

Sgt. Lee Grabner said investigators interviewed witnesses Sunday to try to identify the person witnesses say threw a quarter-keg of beer into the flames, and to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.

Fires had been set in several barrels to keep people at the partygoers warm at the outdoors party in western Connecticut, said Police Captain Michael Mrazik.

"This is a certain tragedy," said Police Chief Colin McCormack. "However, nothing I have been apprised of to this point in this investigation, which I caution is at the very early states, indicates a deliberate act on anyone's part."


Party Foul

I seen this on CNN Pipeline ... dang, thats sad .. that was a stupid thing to do.

yup pretty stupid indeed. The sad thing is the person who did this damn well knew what was going to happen. I hope they catch this person and charge them with manslaughter.

How did it blow up? It's a large metal beer keg right? I mean, i'm not questioning that it did, i've always wanted to know what would happen actually if a beer keg was made into a bomb.. i guess.. but what's the science behind it? I suppose it must have been in there for awhile and got super heated. Or.. something.

On a smaller scale, throw a can of hairspray or aeresol paint into a fire and you'll get the same thing. The gasses expand because of the heat, eventually the container can't handle the pressure and explodes.

Yes i was thinking along those lines, the gases in aeresol cans are highly flammable and that's what had me confused, beer doesn't ignite because it's comprised too much of other liquids with only a small percentage of alcohol, but when heating the liquid of course it would give off flammable gases. Good call, that made sense.

Absolutely. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do. Even if no one was intended to get
hurt, the person who threw the keg in the fire should have known better. I'm sure that
when this person is caught, charges will be brought against them.

l agree that it was a stupid thing to do , but the person who did it might not have known it would have blown up or could have been drunk and impaired his/her way of thinking , but still it is no excuse for doing it .
l hope they do find this person and charge them .

Beer + fire + young people = trouble

Actually alcohol plays no role in this. I was once camping and someone threw a can of baked bean's into the fire and wow big bang. The beer boiling inside the keg would be the pressure builder,(even if very little beer was left inside) and wow a beer keg= lots of schrapnel

thanks for explaining i was wondering to.

Thats crazy, especially a young man dying. Sad indeed. That explosion must have been big and LOUD though! Dumb asses...

Did you ever see the episode of Mythbusters where they heated sealed cans of beans? Some of the schrapnel stuck in the wall!

flamming wombat. he better be man enough to confess

Like everyone said that's just freakin' stupid who would do something like that. Had to be on purpose.

Morons who failed science.

Also keep in mind that it was a quarter keg, not a half keg which is what most of you are thinking of.

As for the intentions, it had to be someone extremely stupid because you know your not getting your deposit back from the distributer after trying to return a keg with scorch marks on it.

I was camping after a rainstorm one time. My firepit was lined with large smooth riverstones with several smaller stones strewn around in there. After some time in the cold and damp I got a fire going. After about an hour I almost pooped myself when one of the smaller rocks expoded off into the stratosphere.

Porous, water saturated, river rocks + fire = random missile. Three minutes earlier I had been standing over the fire like the Colossus of Rhodes trying to dry myself out. That would have been one hell of a nutshot.

I wouldn't mind watching a keg explode in a fire as long I was like 100 yards away.
Consider yourself one of the lucky ones.

What an example of that saying-for every action, there is a reaction. (I think that is it.)
People need to start thinking instead of just doing. A young life has been taken. What a terrible price to pay for ignorance.

geez.......that person is so dumb....didnt they think of the consequences

it just sounds freaky
was i the only one holdin my neck well reading
thats too bad though

A quarter keg would be the most dangerous! I don't think the person that did this threw in his own keg. Just some show off who thinks he's the life of the party because of his false sense of security and need to do something outrageous to get the attention.

Ok thats was my moment on a half drunk Dr phille moment

But it sounded like such a good idea.