Where’s Paul Harvey when you need him? (Update: Paul Harvey not needed … STATter 911 reader finds the answer.)

I want to know the rest of this story. The picture above is from the website of United Steam Fire Engine Company #3 in Frederick County, MD of a fire Monday afternoon. In the last 15-minutes I have read accounts of the fire from the website where the picture came from, the Frederick News Post, the Gazette and WHAG-TV. Not one of them has the answer to the question I have about the blaze.

Let me back up. The news accounts all make mention this fire was set by eight Linganore High School at Oakdale students. All are boys between the ages of 15 and 17. According to the News Post, the Maryland State Fire Marshals Office has charged them “with malicious destruction of property, second-degree arson and first-degree malicious burning”.

Here is the intriguing part. According to the articles, the fire started when an experiment went awry. The experiment is one the teens were trying to recreate after having seen it on Mythbusters, a popular Discovery Channel Show.

And? …. And?

There is no “and”. The next thing I was hoping for is some hint at what the experiment was. No mention in any of the articles.

Was the experiment one of putting heat, fuel and oxygen together to see what happens or was it something a little more elaborate than that?

The few times I have seen Mythbusters I have really liked the show. It actually seems to be a fun way to get into science stuff. I hate to see the show thought of as something that is corrupting our youth.

So, am I now going to have to put on my reporter’s cap and try to get to the bottom of this myself?

Or, maybe I will get lucky and my old friend Deputy Chief State Fire Marshal Allen Gosnell, who was interviewed about the fire, will read my plea and want to come clean about this deep, dark, mystery.

UPDATE at 12:44 PM Saturday:

From a STATter 911 reader who saw what I did not from a different Frederick News Post article.

During each episode, the show’s special effects experts take on three myths and use modern day science to show viewers what is real or fiction, according to the show’s website.

The group had seen a show testing the theory that if you throw a dry chemical fire extinguisher on a fire, it will explode and put out the fire, McNeil said.

While it worked on the television show, it didn’t for the group who chose to try their experiment at a barn behind the school at 10506 Old National Pike.

So as Emily Litella used to say – “Never mind!”