Did 26-year-old Bill Davis from Florida die after he tried microwaving a microwave oven, causing an explosion which killed him? No, that's not true: the story was made up by a fauxtire site that invents tales of bizarre crimes and weird accidents for entertainment purposes. It did not really happen.
The story originated from an article published by 8Shit on July 3, 2018 titled "Florida Man Dies In Explosion After Attempting To Microwave A Microwave" (archived here) which opened:
A Florida man has had one of the most epic deaths we've ever written about. 26-year old Bill Davis died yesterday after attempting to microwave a microwave. He was in a video call with his friends and, since they were bored, they dared him to microwave a smaller microwave and he did it.
"I didn't really think he was gonna do it. He is (or was) one of our craziest friends, who would do anything just to make us laugh", said Michael, who was in the video call.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail and might have confused it for a real news article:
Florida Man Dies In Explosion After Attempting To Microwave A Microwave
A Florida man has had one of the most epic deaths we've ever written about. 26-year old Bill Davis died yesterday after attempting to microwave a microwave. He was in a video call with his friends and, since they were bored, they dared him to microwave a smaller microwave and he did it. "I didn't [...]
But the picture used to illustrate the article is actually from a news story about a Masterchef winner losing her home due to a kitchen fire in 2016:
Masterchef winner left homeless after kitchen burns down
CEN/FACEBOOK/AIDA PARASCAN Aida Parascan, 36, triumphed on the hit cooking show in 2013 - where she pocketed a £40,000 prize. But the newly-made celebrity has now lost out after her kitchen was set ablaze as she popped out.
Furthermore, 8shit.net carries a disclaimer on its about page that reads:
8Shit is a satire and humor website.
It contains cutting edge satire on a diverse range of topics.
The website publishes fake news, shocking rumors and reports with incisive sarcasm, and humor.
We also post crazy real news which often sounds too good to be true.
And an additional disclaimer in the footer of every page:
8Shit is a satire news and humor website. All its content is fiction (except those posts under the "serious" category) and shouldn't be taken as real. All references, names and marks or institutions in this website are used as contextual elements, like in any novel or science-fiction story.
We wrote about 8shit.net before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
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