12. Roland Wessling & Hazel Woodhams
In 2011, British couple Roland Wessling and Hazel Woodhams took up camping and went on
a trip to the Norfolk Broads, on a weekend in July. They had set up a barbecue outside
their tent to do all their cooking but, hours later, after they had finished up,
they decided to bring it into the tent to protect it from passers by or rain. They made sure it was
cool to the touch and had no flame before setting it on the porch area and retired to
bed. Unfortunately, one key element they hadn’t checked was if the gas had been turned off.
At 6 am, Wessling awoke extremely sick and disoriented and frantically called for help.
As they were camped in a secluded area, help wasn’t close by but he was eventually rushed to
the hospital. Doctors discovered that the carbon monoxide levels in his blood were extremely high.
Carbon monoxide poisoning blocks oxygen and can quickly suffocate victims from the inside
out. The brain can suffocate in just 4 minutes causing lasting effects, if not death. Wessling
damaged a kidney and nearly lost an arm, but was lucky to have woken up when he did. Unfortunately,
the same couldn’t be said for Hazel Woodhams, who died at the scene.
11. Nadia Sawalha
Star of British Talk show Loose Women, Nadia Sawalha suffered gruesome burns to her neck
after she tried putting a bottle of honey in the microwave, in July of 2021. The 56-year-old was
vacationing in her father’s brand-new seaside caravan when the incident occurred. She put the
bottle of hard, crystalized honey in the microwave to try and soften it up, only to get distracted by
a passing windsurfer that she’d spotted through the kitchen window. As she returned to check on
the bottle, it was seconds away from exploding and flew out of the pot, spraying scorching hot
honey all over the ceiling, floor, and Nadia’s neck. According to her, the pain was unbearable.
She immediately started screaming and pulled her clothes off before sticking her head under the
sink. After posting photos of her injuries to Instagram, the talk show host counted herself
lucky that the honey hadn’t hit her in the face.
10. Kong Chen
A knife fight broke out between two chefs, in a Long Island sushi restaurant,
in September of 2016. The fight, taking place at the Ichiban Sushi restaurant and hibachi grill,
was between one of the sushi chefs and one of the kitchen chefs, both of whom were newly
employed. According to the reports, the chefs were using expensive sushi knives in the fight,
but it was uncertain exactly what had caused the disagreement. One of the men was rushed
to the hospital as he was seriously cut up but didn’t receive life-threatening injuries. Only
one combatant was named as Kong Chen, who was arrested for assault in the aftermath.
9. Miluo, China
An explosion coming from the kitchen of a small restaurant in Miluo, China, left 34
people injured, in November of 2020. It took place at around lunchtime with the blast itself and the
aftermath all caught on camera. Surveillance footage showed the first apparent explosion
that resulted in puffs of smoke coming from an entrance. As several people approached to see
what had happened, the room and the entire screen were engulfed in a ball of flames. The restaurant
was left in shambles as people were seen fleeing, one of them with their clothes caught on fire.
Firefighters responded quickly and of the 34 affected, only one was left with serious injuries.
Authorities suspected it was a gas explosion, but an investigation was launched.
8. Unnamed New Zealand Man
In 2021, a New Zealand man burned down his house after leaving a steak to cook
in his toaster oven. Popping out to get some chips at the convenience store, the man,
whose identity was not revealed, returned to find the house he shared with his partner set ablaze.
Lucky to have left at the right time or regretful to have missed an opportunity to nip the incident
in the bud, the damage to the home was in the hundreds of thousands. To make matters worse,
the couple's insurance company didn’t reimburse them enough for the rebuilding costs,
citing that “cooking a steak in a toaster oven is literally a recipe for disaster”.
7. Daniel S.
A man, only identified as Daniel S, from Morelia, Mexico, was microwaving popcorn when it exploded.
While unpacking a new vacuum he’d just bought with his wife, the man left the room to make the snack,
setting a timer. Unfortunately, when he returned and reached his hand inside the microwave
to retrieve the bag, he was given an electric shock and the appliance exploded. Paramedics
were called to the scene immediately, but Daniel succumbed to the extensive burns and lesions
that covered his body. The cause of the explosion was never revealed by the ensuing investigation,
but it’s suspected that the high-voltage oven had charged something left unintentionally inside.
6. Clarissa Montgomery
On June the 14th of 2021, elementary school teacher and mother Clarissa Montgomery
suffered from severe burns while trying to fry tortilla chips in her kitchen. An avid home cook,
she’d prepared the dish several times before but, on that particular occasion, she made one
crucial mistake. Instead of scooping away from her, Montgomery scooped the chips towards her.
As she did that, she caught the sizzling pan and inadvertently pulled it off the stove,
bathing her legs and backside in boiling hot oil. The oil caused second and third-degree burns on
30% of her body and left her in excruciating pain. After being treated, she returned for a
follow-up appointment where doctors recommended she be admitted to a burn unit at the Memorial
Hermann hospital, in Houston, Texas, as her injuries were still in a severe state. The
prognosis was 4 weeks of healing with expensive skin grafts or 4 months of recovery without them.
5. Carmen
“Jackie” Lindhart
In 2016, in Sandy, Utah resident Carmen “Jackie” Lindhart lost her life in a freak baking accident.
Working at the local Reams Grocery Store, the 45-year-old woman was doing prep work in the back
when she got pulled into an industrial-sized mixer. Screaming as she was dragged in,
a coworker ran to turn off the machine, but the damage was done. The blades of the mixer caused
fatal injuries and Lindhart was pronounced dead at the scene. Police suspected that loose clothing
was a probable factor, but Lindhart’s family believed the tragedy could’ve been avoided and a
year later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against both the bakery and the machine’s manufacturer.
4. Issa Ismail
On June the 22nd of 2021, 25-year-old chef Issa Ismail died when he fell into a pot
of boiling hot chicken soup. Working as a caterer for a wedding in Zakho, Iraq,
the chef was preparing a large vat of soup to feed the hundreds of guests. According to his family,
he’d been working as a chef for 8 years, cooking food for a broad array of events. This,
unfortunately, was to be his last. Slipping on the floor close to the vat of soup he was cooking,
he fell right in. The accident caused third-degree burns across 70% of his body. Ismail clung to life
for 5 days before he eventually succumbed to his injuries, leaving behind two daughters and a son.
3. Rebecca Burger We have discussed this case in a previous video
and you can argue about whether or not it can truly be considered a cooking accident, but given
the severity of the case and the fact that we can draw attention to the product recall and maybe
even prevent harm we decided to include it. Rebecca Burger, who had a large following on
Instagram, died in a freak accident in 2017 when an Ard’time high pressure whipped cream dispenser,
that the company had recalled 4 years prior, exploded. The dispenser had been recalled
in early 2013 due to concerns of the plastic top “bursting” off in what by some has been
deemed as a “totally ineffective recall campaign”. Presumably and understandably, Rebecca had been
unaware of the recall. Upon using the unsafe dispenser, it exploded and its cartridge hit
Rebecca in the chest. Firefighters who arrived at the scene were able to revive her heartbeat,
but Burger was unconscious when she arrived at the hospital and died the following day.
30 Year old Emilie Lada, also from France, was awarded €1.1m the same year,
when the same type of Ard’time dispenser exploded, tore off part of her face and left her with
permanent disabilities including memory failure and loss of taste and smell.
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2. Jose Melena
In Santa Fe Springs, California, a 62-year-old man by the name of Jose Melena was inadvertently
cooked alive in a vat of tuna. On October the 11th of 2012, unaware that Melena was inside the
pressurized cooker, doing maintenance work, two of his coworkers filled it with 12,000 pounds of fish
and turned it on. According to reports, a supervisor noticed he was missing and instructed
employees to search for him, but he wasn’t found until 2 hours later when the pressure cooker was
turned off and opened. The owner of the tuna processing plant, Bumble Bee Foods, and two of
the managers were charged with multiple counts of violating safety regulations in connection to the
death. The case ended in the largest settlement involving a workplace violation death. Bumble
Bee Foods pled guilty to a misdemeanor and agreed to pay $6 million to settle the criminal charges.
Neither manager was given time behind bars as one served community service and the other got
3 years of probation. Of the settlement, Melena’s family was given $1.5 million in reparations.
1. Pradnya
Survase
A woman in India faced the death penalty after she poisoned food at a housewarming on June the
18th of 2018. 23-year-old Pradnya Survase had been constantly insulted by her in-laws
about her dark complexion and her cooking. Wanting her in-laws and her husband dead,
the young woman stole snake poison to add to the dhal. The event was attended by 120 people and
88 of those ended up hospitalized with extreme stomach pain and vomiting. 5 people succumbed
to the poisoning. Police determined that those who’d gotten ill had eaten later on in the event
and deduced it was Survase who was serving at the time. Once questioned, she broke down
and confessed to poisoning the food. Telling them what was in it, she admitted that her family had
already eaten before she could put the poison in their meals and opted instead to give it
to her intended victim’s children. Survase was charged with murder, attempted murder,
and conspiracy.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather chop off your pinky finger cooking or burn off your hair
permanently? Let us know in the comments section below!