You might think your fancy digital assistants are life-savers when they let you send a text with your voice or order flowers for your mom without having to Google a florist, but for one New Hampshire man, Siri may quite literally be the reason he is still alive today. The house that Christopher Beaucher’s exploded, and with charred hands and no way to actually dial emergency services, the helpful Apple assistant came to the rescue, allowing him to summon paramedics and, ultimately, live to tell the tale.
The incident occurred on May 1st, when Beaucher went to check on his mother’s unoccupied cottage home and discovered that vandals had broken in and stolen as much copper gas piping as they could carry. Noticing the missing hardware, Beaucher headed to the basement to continue his investigation, switching on the basement light as he went. That’s when all hell broke loose.
“I switched the light on and the whole building exploded because, apparently, they had taken the copper pipes and they had not shut the gas off,” Beaucher told CNN. With the gas still leaking out, the house was effectively a bomb, and with any small spark or arc from the light switch wiring serving as the igniter, the home detonated.
“My hands were so badly burned and I needed help, so I used Siri to call 911,” Beaucher says. Once paramedics arrived they were able to rescue him, though he is still recovering from second-degree burns to his face, neck, and hands.
