Smoking cigarettes near gasoline can be a dangerous combination.
Some thieves stealing gasoline from U-Haul trucks in California found out the hard way, as they accidentally blew up a few trucks while pilfering fuel from the vehicles' tanks, KTVU reported.
The thieves were siphoning gasoline from the trucks in Santa Rosa at 1:30 a.m. when the explosions occurred, the television station reported.
"The evidence shows they were siphoning gas, and someone lit a cigarette and blew this place up," Sgt. Spencer Crum, of the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department, told KTVU. "Blew it up pretty good, about six vans got blown up and mostly totaled out here."
Police believe some of the people involved in the theft could have suffered burn injuries, the television station reported.
"Fuel theft is a very dangerous operation, so we likely have somebody out there who has been injured," Cyndi Foreman, of the Sonoma County Fire District, told KTVU.
Foreman said the thieves left two 55-gallon drums, tubing, funnels and headlamps, the television station reported. Authorities also found a pocket knife and a lighter.
"Not the smartest thing to do," Crum told KTVU. "These criminals need to learn, you can't be lighting cigarettes when committing these types of crimes."
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