A mother and daughter duo in the UK had a lucky escape after a World War II grenade they unwittingly brought inside their home exploded in their kitchen. Jodie Crews, 38, and her eight-year-old daughter Isabella picked up the oddly-shaped grenade at a beach in Deal, Kent, last Saturday, thinking it was a fossil or an old bone, reported the Daily Mail.
The duo took it home and tried to figure out what it could be. They say that the grenade looked like a bone and didn’t feel metallic at all.
“I posted photos on fossil and archaeology sites and had lots of replies but no one suggested it could be a grenade,” said Crews.
According to Metro News, one person said that the object could be whale vomit and suggested that Ms Crews try poking it with a hot needle to see if it would give out a “puff of white smoke”.
However, instead of a puff of smoke, the grenade turned into a fireball right inside their home. Crews and her daughter watched in horror as it burst into flames. Luckily, she was able to put the grenade into their kitchen sink and throw a wet towel over it.
“It just turned into a fireball,” Crews said. “My daughter screamed and ran out the back door. I grabbed the grenade and ran with it at arms’ length into the kitchen where I hurled it into the sink.
“I then rushed upstairs to soak a towel to throw over it to put it out. The adrenalin must have kicked in and taken over.”
She posted about the incident on Facebook this Friday, where her post quickly went viral.
Fortunately, the grenade burned itself out in the kitchen sink. While it damaged the sink and melted part of the windowsill, the mother and daughter duo were able to escape without any injuries.
Their neighbours called the fire services and a firefighter identified the object as a grenade from the Second World War, most likely to be about 80 years old.