A Sand Ridge man and his brother were killed last Friday afternoon when they attempted to jump start the man’s new car.

Don Dowitt, 37, and his brother Y. Dowitt, 33, were trying to get Don’s new Toyota Prius to start so they could go fishing at Cedar Creek State Park.

Knowing that the car was a hybrid and that the battery bank was quite low from a fishing trip the day before, the two men  attempted to save time on recharging the batteries by hooking 240-volt house current directly to the recharging terminus.

Hydrogen gas, which is a byproduct of battery use, is highly explosive and will explode with the slightest of sparks. The Dowitt brothers made a big spark and scattered pieces of the three-week-old vehicle over two and a half acres.

According to friends who were enjoying refreshments on the nearby front porch of the deceased men’s old home place, “All of a sudden, it went KABOOM! And there was this small mushroom shaped cloud.”

State Police say that the deaths have been ruled an accident, although, due to vast number of empty cans surrounding the blast site, alcohol may have been involved.

A memorial keg party will held at their old home place as soon as all the scrap metal from the explosion can be gathered and sold.

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