Peroxide leak suspected in hairdresser's car blast death

A hairdresser was killed when her car exploded, apparently after fumes from a leaking bottle of hydrogen peroxide ignited as she lit a cigarette.

Jenny Mitchell, 19, was driving home from a visit to her fiance, Russell Andrews, 21, when her silver Mini Cooper was engulfed in flames.

It is believed that hydrogen peroxide, used to bleach hair, may have mixed with other chemicals in the car's passenger footwell and ignited.


Photo from here.

Her father, Bob, a retained firefighter, said: "What happened we will never know, but we believe the bottle of hydrogen peroxide was leaking inside her car and might have mixed with something which made it more dangerous.

"Jenny was a smoker and we believe she lit a cigarette, which caused an explosion. We want to warn hairdressers to treat chemicals with caution and ensure that they are not allowed to leak. We want to make them aware that a combination of things that they carry have the potential to react and go off like a bomb."

The accident occurred on the morning of 9 March as Mitchell was travelling home to Shaftesbury. An inquest which opened last week, heard that she had died as a result of a "catastrophic explosion".