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Alcohol, welding did not mix well
Men injured filling bag with acetylene
CITIZEN STAFF
The holiday season started with a bang for two men mixing alcohol and explosive gases early Friday in the Lower Keys, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies say a loud explosion that awoke many Cudjoe Key residents at 12:30 a.m. was caused by two men who were fooling around with a welding torch and a plastic garbage bag that one of them was filling with a mixture of acetylene and oxygen gases.
Brett Stewart, 37, was treated at the scene for burns and explosion-induced deafness, then taken to Lower Keys Medical Center, according to a Sheriff's Office offense report. Stewart's friend, 45-year-old Fredrick Lytton, also was taken to the hospital for examination.
Deputies were dispatched to Doubloon Lane and Jolly Roger Drive after a 911 caller reported an explosion.
Neighbors told deputies a truck had just left a nearby home on Doubloon Lane in a hurry, said sheriff's spokeswoman Deputy Becky Herrin. Deputies caught up with the truck, which Lytton was driving, she said.
Lytton, who appeared to deputies to be "impaired" told them he left the house because "a bomb went off," Herrin said.
Returning to the residence, deputies reportedly were told by Stewart's parents that the two men had been drinking and had blown something up with welding torches. Stewart was upstairs showering with the window open, and deputies could hear him moaning in pain, Herrin said. Deputies called out to him from below, but he apparently couldn't hear them because he had been deafened by the explosion.
Lyyton later told deputies he and Stewart were drinking below the house when Stewart said, "Watch this," and began filling the garbage bag with the gas mixture, Herrin said.
Both men apparently had their arms around the expanding bag when it exploded.
No arrests resulted, but deputies said the investigation is ongoing and charges could be pending,
