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Watch a Truck Full of Axe Explode in a Teen Pyro Fantasy Come to Life

A spectacle sure to delight kids who have shamelessly used the body spray as a DIY flamethrower.
Drew Schwartz
Brooklyn, US

Teenage boys have long harnessed the destructive power of Axe body spray, going beyond just assaulting people's nostrils with the stuff and turning the little cans into actual weapons. They make for pretty effective flamethrowers, and on Friday—in what was basically a 13-year-old pyromaniac's fantasy come to life—a truck full of the things caught fire, starting a massive blaze that shut down an entire stretch of Texas highway.

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Hundreds of the aerosol cans exploded inside of a semi trailer, raining deodorant grenades down on both sides of an interstate in Belton, Texas, the Temple Daily Telegram reports. Between the deafening chorus of all the cans popping off, which sounded a little like gunshots, and the immense clouds of flame and smoke the blaze gave off, the highway basically looked like a war zone.

Miraculously, no one was injured: The truck's driver managed to unhitch his trailer and take off before the inferno really got going, according to the Daily Telegram. Still, the blaze wreaked a lot of havoc, causing some serious damage to the asphalt and shutting down the stretch of highway for about eight hours, while exploding cans of body spray with names like "Anarchy" and "Black Eclipse" really lived up to their titles.

A crowd of locals gathered 'round the massive fire to check it out, presumably more out of morbid curiosity than drawn in by the irresistible scent of who or what smelled so goddamn sexy, as Axe's ads might suggest. It's unclear if the truckload of body spray actually managed to overpower the smell of burning aluminum, melted asphalt, and charred rubber, but honestly, the scent of a terrible fire might be preferable to a thousand cans of "Apollo" or whatever.

According to the Daily Telegram, some parts of the interstate have basically been reduced to gravel, and Texas's Department of Transportation is going to have to make some pretty significant repairs to the highway. But at the end of the day, the explosion likely only serves as more inspiration for all the teenage pyros out there hellbent on using the stuff to make DIY fireworks or barbecue insects to death.

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