School torched following Swedish teens' failed hand gel tests

Published: 30 Sep 09 08:14 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/22376/20090930/

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Two teens playing with alcohol-based hand sanitizer inadvertently burned down a school in Södertälje, south of Stockholm.

“This is a case of youthful negligence,” Matti Paavo of the Södertälje police told the Expressen newspaper.

Back in August, the two boys, ages 15 and 16, decided to test the flammability of their newly purchased hand sanitizer by writing their names with the substance on windows and sections of the façade at the Hovsjö school.

They then set the script alight.

Believing the alcohol-based liquid l had burned out, the two youths then left the area.

But as it turned out, the flames continued to burn in a slow-burning and nearly invisible flame which eventually spread to the wooden panel trim on the building’s exterior.

From there, the fire then spread up the walls toward the roof, sparking a strong enough blaze that firefighters were called less than 10 minutes after the boys had initially sprayed hand sanitizer on the school.

And despite the best efforts of fire crews, the school was totally destroyed.

The two teenagers are now suspected of arson, although police don’t believe they purposefully burned down the school.

“It was a game. They have no other explanation other than that they wanted to test things out and see what happened,” Paavo told the newspaper.

David Landes (david.landes@thelocal.se/+46 8 656 6518)

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11:20 September 30, 2009 by eZee.se
Ok, I'll ask the question on everyones mind:

Does that mean the school has been sanitized now???
20:33 September 30, 2009 by Nemesis
This is arson, pure and simple. Jail them.
20:49 September 30, 2009 by dcarlson12
Does this mean that we have to light the gel on fire to sanitize our hands?
00:42 October 1, 2009 by Lemmy
I still think it was not "Börje" and "Görän" who did this...
23:27 October 3, 2009 by DamnImmigrant
The really sad part was that the authorities knew EXACTLY who did it because the writing WAS on the wall!!!
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