Brooklyn Man Haunted By Exploding Toilet

Gothamist's reenactment of Pierre's new flushing method. (Credit: Scott Heins, modeling work by men's room model Josh Steele.)

A Brooklyn man has a new prayer for the porcelain gods: Please don't let my toilet explode in my face...again.

October 2nd started out as any other day for Flatbush resident Michel Pierre. He used the bathroom, presumably not while reading this lengthy Wikipedia entry on "Toilet related injuries and deaths," (Categories: Accidents, Injuries Caused By Animals, Historical Deaths) and, as people and particularly sophisticated pets do, went on to flush. That's when everything changed...forever.

“I remember there was a ‘boom’ and the thing exploded in my face,” a traumatized Pierre told the Daily News. “I was blinded and pieces flew all over the place.”

The Exploding Toilet isn't a joke—Pierre required 30 stitches to close the wounds inflicted by pieces of flying porcelain shrapnel, apparently the result of built-up air pressure from the water being turned off for repairs earlier that day.

Pierre's physical wounds will heal, but the psychological trauma—the Post-Toilet Stress Disorder, if you will—will live on for much longer. "I’m afraid to flush the toilet right now,” he said. “I can’t stop thinking about it every time I look at the bowl.”

In an attempt to live a normal life with PTSD, Pierre has been doing his flushing remotely, having affixed a string to the toilet's handle so he can empty the bowl from a suitably safe distance. The Daily News has a fantastic photograph of a wounded but still proud Pierre, his gaze firm and steady as he grips the string. "A toilet may have exploded in my face," his posture says, "but I will not go quietly into the night. I will not vanish without a fight." We reenacted the scene in the photograph above.

Incredibly, Pierre was not the only victim of commode combustion. A staggering four other residents of the same building also faced bursting bowls, though the News did not elaborate on their injuries or current mental states.  Pierre, for his part, looks forward to the day he can once again approach his toilet without terror. “It sounds silly but I’m still scared,” he said. “Maybe someday it goes away but right now I’m in pain.” Let's all agree to never tell him about the rats.

http://gothamist.com/2013/10/10/exploding_toilet.php