Man blows up house making hash oil, told police it was crème brulee

ORLANDO, Fla. — A Florida man was recovering in hospital on Thursday after telling rescuers that he was burned in an explosion while making a crème brulee desert dish, but police said he had been cooking up a batch of hash oil.

Investigators for the Martin County Sheriff’s Office in south Florida found the man’s explanation hard to swallow and obtained a search warrant for his town home, Christine Weiss, the sheriff’s spokeswoman, told Reuters.

Rather than the sugar and eggs required to concoct the classic French custard with brittle top caramelized layer, they found the utensils and ingredients for cooking hash oil, a potent form of concentrated cannabis extract made by using highly flammable butane as a solvent, Weiss said.

“The subject said he was cooking crème brulee,” said Martin County Fire Rescue bureau chief Daniel Harshburger.

Weiss said: “As far as I can tell, there was no crème brulee in the house.”

She said the man was severely burned on his lower extremities in a flash explosion so powerful that it rocked the pictures on the walls of a home next door. The homes were not damaged, she said.

A large quantity of drugs were found, and charges are pending, she said.

The man, whose name has not yet been released, remains hospitalized at a burn unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Weiss said.