Power-dressing man leaves trail of destruction

Fri Sep 16,10:30 AM ET

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian man built up a
40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his
clothes as he walked, leaving a trail of scorched
carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to
evacuate a building.
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Frank Clewer, who was wearing a woolen shirt and a
synthetic nylon jacket, was oblivious to the growing
electrical current that was building up as his clothes
rubbed together.

When he walked into a building in the country town of
Warrnambool in the southern state of Victoria
Thursday, the electrical charge ignited the carpet.

"It sounded almost like a firecracker," Clewer told
Australian radio Friday.

"Within about five minutes, the carpet started to
erupt."

Employees, unsure of the cause of the mysterious
burning smell, telephoned firefighters who evacuated
the building.

"There were several scorch marks in the carpet, and we
could hear a cracking noise -- a bit like a whip --
both inside and outside the building," said fire
official Henry Barton.

Firefighters cut electricity to the building thinking
the burns might have been caused by a power surge.

Clewer, who after leaving the building discovered he
had scorched a piece of plastic on the floor of his
car, returned to seek help from the firefighters.

"We tested his clothes with a static electricity field
meter and measured a current of 40,000 volts, which is
one step shy of spontaneous combustion, where his
clothes would have self-ignited," Barton said.

"I've been firefighting for over 35 years and I've
never come across anything like this," he said.

Firefighters took possession of Clewer's jacket and
stored it in the courtyard of the fire station, where
it continued to give off a strong electrical current.

David Gosden, a senior lecturer in electrical
engineering at Sydney University, told Reuters that
for a static electricity charge to ignite a carpet,
conditions had to be perfect.

"Static electricity is a similar mechanism to
lightning, where you have clouds rubbing together and
then a spark generated by very dry air above them,"
said Gosden.