Good argument for visiting the local big box before power outages occur.

We are getting ready for a "maintenance power outage" planned to last about six hours this afternoon.Good opportunity to see how we will do without electricity (no internet, no ETS!! Oh no!)..

Power outages are common events these days - a routine emergency, if you will, and they are fairly easy to prepare for:

Step one: Eat all the ice cream before it melts....

It’s also a really good idea to make sure that if you keep explosives, you store them safely, under lock and key, and well-marked.

Naw, I keep my explosives in my dresser for easier access!!

it would be helpful if they could identify a candle first, and see that what they had was not made with wax and a wick. A fuse does not look like a wick, dynamite does not feel the same as a candle. This was just idiocy.

Idiocy may be too strong, definitely ignorance. There’s probably some form of cognitive dissonance at play with her needing to believe she was holding a candle, while she should have realized that what she was holding was not a candle — perception meets reality. Since she needed a candle, she lit the match.

I suspect that lighting in the basement was deficient, and in order to see what she was holding, she lit a match.....

But blasting caps are set off by a momentary spark. Did the dynamite really explode, or just burn vigorously?

Good question. I’ve never had the opportunity to work with dynamite, but as I recall the active ingredient is nitroglycerine in an absorbant base with stabilizers. Another question is what exactly was the “wick” she lit? How are the caps normally activated? I’m assuming not with the <1” wick you’d normally find on a candle; so how long was the wick on this “candle”?

Still, a stick of dynamite is not something of which most people have any experience, so her not recognizing it for what it was is almost understandable. That said, Montanero’s terminology may have been correct — idiot, both the victim and the idiot who left it for her to find.

Basically there are two types of blasting caps. One is electric and the other uses a burning fuse. It is somehow fishy that the stick seems to have been stored with cap and fuse. So it is hard to tell how long the fuse was. On top there are fuses with different burning speeds. A short fuse may burn for several seconds.
Most people should have experience with candles. If it does not feel like a candle it may be a bad idea to set it on fire in the first place.

This may be use of a regional term to describe a firecracker: we used to buy "quartersticks" for July 4th. They were cardboard tubes, usually red, with epoxied ends, a green fuse sticking out through one end, filled with...whatever they fill M-80s with. These were about the diameter of a 50 cent piece and maybe four inches long.
They look nothing like a candle.
I've seen the damage a handheld M-80 does--I would expect the damage described in the article, from one of these "quartersticks."

My experience with dynamite and blasting caps dates from, literally, fifty years ago.When transporting the materials, we had the caps and dynamite in different, separate vehicles. They never met until the dynamite was armed with the cap. My mentor instructed me to always know where the plunger was at all times, preferably in my hip pocket, and disconnected from the wires.

We did not blast during lightning storms...needless to say. Scholarly, mild mannered archaeologists does not usually employ dynamite, but when it absolutely, positively, must move, nothing beats a half stick.

It depends on how old the dynamite is. Some VERY OLD dynamite could be set off with a flame or spark and was based on nitroglycerin. Anything she likely had was newer than that, as the nitroglycerin tends to sweat out of the wrappers and form pools on the surface it is resting on. Very difficult to clean up. So unless the dynamite had a blasting cap and time fuse inserted, it likely did not actually detonate.

You think you'd know that candles don't have fuses but on the other hand you don't generally expect to find explosives in the basement (unless your home is more interesting than mine).

My reading of the article is that it was a very large firework, rather than some kind of professional explosive device stored fused with a blasting cap. Given the power described I stand by my original comments regarding storage of explosives.

Storing explosives properly is always a good idea even if it just is fireworks. In Germany they usually air warning spots on TV between Chirstmas and new year´s eve to encourage people to be careful with the fireworks (e. g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z8DFh9Jp-0&t=160, they blow up a dummy hand so viewer´s discretion might be required).
Fireworks bear an extra risk as they usually are stored fused.

The article cited speaks of "dynamite," which of course could be a generic term (anything highly flammable) used by the reporter; it might well have been a road flare, signal flare, or some such which could cause damage if handled carelessly, as this one evidently was.

Reminds me, I have a couple of nautical signal flares that I should dispose of properly - take to the local FD, most likely.

Whether it was a large firework (very likely) or dynamite (almost zero possibility) doesn't really matter much. What matters is that Darwin is still at work here. Even my dog would have recognized that thing was not a candle based on pictures I've seen of it - allegedly - on other websites. It makes me sad that someone could have obtained the age of 30 and still be so ignorant. She didn't deserve to be injured so, but man, was she dumb. She finds something like this in her basement, unknown, and from the previous tenant, ... and decides to light it off in the house???!!!

I guarantee that anyone here, blindfolded and in total darkness, could ID the differences between a candle and any of those fireworks or explosives.

For an amateur magician is it not so surprising.

• time lapse: after a few seconds they do not remember
• directing expectation:she was looking for a candle and the find matched enough parameters
• experience: they probably did not put explosives in the basement so it should not be there

After seeing what an audience will swallow, mistaking fireworks for a candle is totally believable.
It would be safer to just dispose of things that a previous tenant left - especially if there is no immediate use for it or if it cannot be readily identified.

Have you ever noticed that white gas fuel bottles look alot like a water bottle in the dark...?

Label everything

Pee bottle when camping?

The smell should readily indicate that it is not water!

Kind of like a fuse should indicate it's not really a candle!

That 'previous owner' probably shopped where I do -

https://local.acmemarkets.com/pa/bryn-mawr/601-w-lancaster-ave.html

They have a whole aisle full of dynamite, anvils, and rocket-powered roller skates.