UKH

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3gr28ek257o

Sounds like a very close shave. Doesn't bear thinking about if they'd been a few seconds slower reacting.

I still sweat thinking about my fart lighting exploits as a young man

Almost as scary as a paraffin primus stove flaring up in a 2 man tent porch.  The flames touched the fabric, luckily there was so much condensation that I had just enough time to depressurise it before we had an inferno. 

There's some perfectly good hard standing outside to set up your stove on at Corrour, there's almost no justification to be using a stove inside.

Goodness me, that was a close one!

I remember various misadventures with an original Coleman peak 1 using bog standard petrol. I chucked the fireball out of the tent more than once... Luckily it seemed to put it out.

Where's Num Num when you need him?

I have a Vango stove which flares occasionally. I can blow it out, but certainly have to be careful where I use it. Most of the time it's a great wee stove, just have to be careful of the odd occasion.

0 out of 10. Nothing to see here.......

Wolverhampton MC legend:  Two members were in a bothy and a pan was put on a stove. It was believed to be water but was in fact the spare cylinder.  It went off and as the bothy was Corrour, there has been an explosion in the bothy.  The blast actually extinguished all the candles and the pan was blown clean out of the third dimension.

It was not me.

that reminds me of when I once loaded up a Pye Bantam radiotelephone with nicad batteries and pushed the tray in not knowing the set had a short.  Not long afterwards it started fizzing and got very hot.  The battery tray was now jammed I suppose by heat/distortion so I ended up throwing the set out of the door very quickly where it fortunately burst open and ejected batteries before an explosion or fire could happen.

What part of using a canister top stove in an enclosed space is not stupid? 

I stayed a couple of years ago, just to the right of the door outside there was a suitable flat rock to pop a stove on, I know because I used it to cook my dinner on despite it being foul weather as I didn't want to endanger the safety of the other people in the bothy (this was a petrol stove so the chance of setting something on fire was rather higher than with a canister top).

Isn't there an open fire in Corrour Bothy?

Gas cannister stoves are safe if used properly. Liquid fuel stoves shouldn't be used in bothies (imho), spillages burning can't just be thrown out etc..

I think so, that still doesn't make it a good idea to set up a stove that could be easily knocked over, which would then flare, inside an enclosed space where other people may be moving round.

They are of course fairly safe when used properly, but it's really not a big deal to cook outside most of the time (barring it sileing it down and midge season) and it's less likely to get knocked over if you haven't got people wandering around nearby.

Several people on here are talking as though only a dangerous lunatic would use a gas stove (or indeed any stove) inside a bothy. Surely that's one of the main benefits of a bothy, with even many people who are camping coming inside to cook - especially when the weather is less than ideal.

In this case there were five people staying in the bothy and all were cooking inside, all using gas stoves. The incident happened because one young lad didn't screw the stove properly onto the cylinder, didn't notice or ignored the hissing sound of escaping gas, and lit it. Everyone else assembled their stoves and cooked with due care and attention. I've been doing that in bothies now for something over 50 years. and will continue to do so, along with all others who don't relish cooking outside in horizontal rain, blizzards, midge fests etc.

The message here is simply to ca canny, not to ban cookers.

The MBA seem to disagree with you. All they are asking for is people to take care:

"The spokesman said bothies were a tremendous resource, particularly in bad weather."

"He added: 'We all cook inside them, but this incident underlines that we need to be very conscious of what we are doing at all times.'"

Are you serious? sideways rain, gale force wind, freezing temps, midges are all perfectly justifiable reasons to cook indoors. Just because one person has an accident doesn't mean we're all going to blow up a bothy. Sure, ban smoking inside a fireworks factory, but this is like saying I shouldn't cross a trickle of a stream because there's a perfectly good bridge  two miles up the track.

Fine, I was excessively blunt.

There are multiple hazards associated with using a stove indoors:

Carbon Monoxide build up (not a huge issue unless multiple people are cooking as the actual mass of gas burned is quite low, if multiple people are cooking you can always open the door a bit to allow it to escape)

Fire hazard from people's kit nearby

Fire hazard from incorrect assembly

Fire hazard from leaking of gas due to perished seals

If it's not lashing it down, or thick with midges it's more sensible to cook outside, away from any thoroughfares, particularly if the bothy is busy, or people are drinking. 

With luck, you never had to carry it again. 

Let's just say it was the worse for wear, "terminally"

This reminds me of a rain-sodden camping trip to Cornwall when I was about 18. We were all in the pub, but my mate and his girlfriend were cooking inside their tent. The cannister ran out, so he fitted a new one. It was one of those that you pierced when you fitted it, and he was working by candlelight... As he told us in a shaking voice, "I screwed it in and it started hissing, so I screwed faster and finally it stopped". "I said phew, breathed a sigh of relief, and then the tent exploded."

Yeah, right. What if it's pissing down, and blowing a hoolie?

I have been cooking in small tents for decades. Of itself, it's not a particular risk.

My mates wee brother did exactly the same. He was left sitting on a folding chair surrounded by the still erect tent poles wondering wtf just happened. Cue phone call to his dad to explain why he “might” need a new tent and could he get a lift home early. 

In a slightly more serious note, this reminded me of a nearby festival where a leaky gas canister made a tent go up in flames, injuring the occupants quite seriously. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-23543285

When you see those festivals with tents rammed in wall to wall, well.... it doesn't bear thinking about what might happen.

A similar tale from my childhood. A leaky gas cooker in a large family tent: whole tent up in flames incredibly quickly; father with permanent damage to his hands from carrying the cooker out, mother almost killed and nylon clothing melted into her legs by the heat, son badly burned ushering his wee sisters out. All in seconds and in a remote campsite before mobile phones, so the injured had to wait hours in agony before help arrived. The parents spent months in hospital.

So yes, there are funny stories, but fire safety in bothies or tents is something to take very seriously.

Tale of stupidity from my youth, camping in Borrowdale. I was cooking my eggs on an old style primus. I bought the “water” to the boil and put in the eggs. It was only when the flames started to come out of the pan that I realised I’d got a pan full of boiling paraffin on top of the stove. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

And how did the eggs taste after that?

Didn’t try them! But I did feel distinctly drunk all day from breathing in the paraffin fumes. 

That sounds similar to what I heard from some cavers in NZ who'd seen an Aussie caver try and top up his carbide lamp from what he'd assumed was a tin of water. It was white spirit for stove fuel.