My roommate likes to play with fire – literally

Here's another true story about my college roommate, Elvis. I was home one weekend afternoon, reading and listening to music in my room. Out of nowhere, I heard a BOOM and Elvis came flying into my room backwards, landing on his back. The explosion made a heavy, deep sound - not like the sharp blast of a gunshot. A split second later, I heard the thud of my roommate landing on the hardwood floor of my room as I spun around in shock.

There he was, lying on his back with his face bright red, looking like he had just returned from a long day at the beach. The tip of his nose was badly blistered and oozing. And there was the faint scent of burnt hair wafting through the room. The bathroom door was directly across the hall from my room. The blast sent him from the bathroom, across the hall, and into my room - at least 4 or 5 feet.

Elvis was dazed, but completely conscious. He chuckled a little and cursed as he slowly picked himself up.

Me: "Holy shit, dude!. What just happened?!"
Elvis: "Fuck. I am retarded."
Me: "Are you okay?"
Elvis: *Walking into the bathroom to look at his face in the mirror* "Yeah I'm fine I think. My face kinda hurts."
Me: "What were you doing? What happened?"
Elvis: "I was trying to create a homemade fire bomb. I thought I had a pretty good design."
Me: "Okay...."
Elvis: "I was filling up balloons with gasoline in the bathtub, but I didn't realize that gas would eat holes in the rubber. The gas started leaking out and running down the drain. I felt a little lightheaded from the fumes so I turned on the water to wash it down the drain. Then I filled up the tub with water to rise the gas off the sides."
Me: "...."
Elvis: "Yeah, it didn't really rinse off. Instead, the gas just sort of floated on top of the water. The fumes were really getting to me, so I opened the window and the bathroom door. I figured that would air out the room enough so I could burn the rest of the gas off the water. I was going to light a match, throw it in the tub and watch the gas burn off. So I grabbed the matchbook and struck a match."
Me: "And?"
Elvis: "And here I am. I guess there were still a lot of fumes in there. The air just exploded. and I went flying."

The skin on his nose was really starting to peel off at this point. It looked like hot cheese melting off a pizza. And I noticed his eyebrows weren't so much brown like normal - they looked more like the whitish gray of a cigarette ash.

I don't think he ended up going to the hospital or anything. I'm pretty sure he let everything heal on its own. The bathroom was unharmed. And his plans for developing some innovative explosives were forced into phase 2. Time for a redesign. But that's a story for another day.