EXPLODING GARBAGE TERROR hits Florida

Terror struck the Floridian city of Orlando this week as a garbage lorry exploded in a blast heard across the neighbourhood after a refuse operative tossed unidentified rubbish into its compactor.

Local cops, firemen and bomb-disposal experts rushed to the scene and surrounding homes were evacuated, with other residents warned to stay indoors. A robot was used to examine the scene of the blast.

Rattled local resident Brian Yannito told the Orlando Sentinel that the explosion made a loud "kaboom" sound and that the windows of his house, four along from the scene of the devastation, were shaken by the shockwaves.

Fears that the garbage-truck crew had stumbled on an underground bomb factory which had foolishly thrown some of its products in the rubbish - or, worse, that the explosion presaged a fearful terror wave campaign of exploding bins and/or municipal vehicles - were unfounded, however.

The bomb squad's robotic and human operatives' assessment was that the blast had in fact been caused by a local resident foolishly disposing of a pressurised container in their garbage: perhaps a propane barbecue-gas canister or (less plausibly) an oxygen cylinder.

The unfortunate refuse operative who had gaily flung the deadly payload of doom into the truck's compactor was reportedly carried from the scene on a stretcher, but it later emerged that his injuries were minor. Personal Injury Lawyers News reports that he suffered no more than "cuts and scrapes".

And it would appear that the community of Pine Hills, where the bin blast incident took place, uses sturdy garbage trucks, well able to stand up to such everyday Florida hazards as explosions or gunfire. The vehicle at the centre of the unpleasantness was reportedly able to continue its task once the bomb squad had declared the scene safe.

Florida refuse operatives are plainly made of stern stuff too, with the kaboom'd truck driver phlegmatically continuing with his route once the Sheriff's department had released the vehicle and a replacement bin-man had arrived. ®