Police: Car blows up when man uses body spray, then lights cigarette

A vehicle driven by a Maryland man exploded Thursday when he lit a cigarette after using an aerosol body spray, police said.

Baltimore County Police spokeswoman Jennifer Peach said the man was running the Chevrolet's air conditioning unit with the front windows down. When he was finished, he lit a cigarette, The Baltimore Sun reported.

Peach said the combination of spray and cigarette smoke triggered a fire and an explosion.

“I would say it would be best to describe as a sudden and violent expansion of the air molecules in that vehicle,” Peach told the Sun.

The explosion blew the car’s doors open, shattered the front window and caused the roof to be pushed up, the Sun reported.

The man was taken to the hospital to check for hearing damage, Peach said. According to the Baltimore County Public Safety’s Twitter feed, the man was transferred to the hospital’s burn unit with “serious injuries.”