Woman mistakenly lit explosives instead of candle during power outage: suit

A Connecticut woman was severely hurt when she lit a quarter stick of dynamite that she believed was a candle during a power outage in her home — and is now suing its former owner for the mishap, according to a report.

Mother of two Karina Gutierrez began searching her home for candles after thunderstorms knocked out power to her Bridgeport neighborhood on Sept. 6, 2018, the Connecticut Post reported.

She found what she thought was a candle in the basement and tried to light it up when it blew up, injuring her face and hands, according to the lawsuit against Oscar Aguirre, former owner of their Lindley Street home.

Gutierrez, who was treated at Bridgeport Hospital before being transferred to Yale-New Haven Hospital, lost part of her left hand, injured her right eye and suffered permanent scarring of her face, chest and arms, the lawsuit says.

“Mrs. Gutierrez’s injuries and losses were directly caused by the willful, wanton and reckless conduct of the defendant in that he knew of the existence of the explosive device but failed to remove it from the basement when he sold the property in deliberate disregard for the safety of the plaintiffs,” the suit states.

“This is a terrible tragedy to happen to this family,” Paul Ganim, the attorney for Gutierrez and her husband, Abidias Martinez, told the news outlet.

“We are thankful, although the mother was tragically injured, that the young children were not physically injured. I am committed to pursuing all legal actions to adequately compensate this family for their horrible loss.”

Aguirre could not be reached for comment.

Fire officials said at the time that they called in the bomb squad after learning there was a second explosive, which authorities detonated elsewhere after evacuating residents in the neighborhood.

“Something that we can get out of this is that people should be prepared when we have power outages, they should have flashlights, glow sticks, things like that to really make sure they can handle being without power for several hours,” Bridgeport Fire Chief Richard Thode told the Connecticut Post.

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