Late-night drinking and an attempt at welding turned out badly for two men in Cudjoe Key as an expanding bag exploded in their arms, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said.
According to deputies, friends Brett Stewart, 37, and Fredrick Lytton, 45, were downstairs drinking a little after midnight when Stewart said “watch this.” He began to fill a trash bag with oxygen and acetylene from a welder he normally uses to work on cars underneath his house at 131 Doubloon Lane, and told deputies that as the bag expanded he and Lytton both wrapped their arms around it – before it exploded.
Neighbors reported the “loud booming sound” to authorities, and when three deputies arrived on the scene at 12:30 a.m., neighbors standing outside reported that a truck had just left a house on Doubloon Lane in a hurry.
Deputies pulled over the truck, driven by Lytton, who “appeared to be impaired,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. He reportedly said he had left 131 Doubloon Lane because “a bomb just went off.”
When deputies arrived at the Stewart residence, his parents were underneath it, and were asked to step away from the house for their safety, the sheriff's office said.
Brett Stewart was taking a shower upstairs, and deputies said they “could hear him through the open window moaning in pain. He couldn’t hear them calling to him, however, because his ears had been damaged by the noise of the explosion.”
A sergeant shut off the welding torches, and Stewart, who was burned on his torso, was taken to Lower Keys Medical Center for treatment, according to the sheriff’s office. Lytton was also taken to the hospital to be examined, it added.
