It’s like something out of Mythbusters.
Karmen Ayres of Vancouver, Wash., returned to her car after work and noticed her windshield was broken. “Saw my window and instantly thought something had fell from the sky,” she says. A closer look revealed a can of hairspray protruding from the glass, according to a report from KCBD.
It was about 90 degrees that day, and the heat inside her car had caused a can of hairspray in the back seat to explode. It popped with enough force to launch toward the front of the car, smashing the windshield and lodging itself there.
Most aerosol cans have temperature warnings, reminding users not to store them at temperatures above 120 degrees. A closed vehicle can heat up quickly, even on a relatively mild day, and that heat can exceed the temperatures aerosol cans can withstand. The resulting pressure can cause them to burst.
Luckily it didn’t travel farther, and nobody was in the car when the can blew. “You saw the damage it did to the window,” says Portland Fire Lt. Rich Chatman, “so that could do a lot of a damage if it were to strike somebody.”
Ayres is an insurance salesperson, according to KGW, and has heard of other items exploding in hot cars such as pop cans, wine bottles, and even loaded guns. Now she has her own story to tell.
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