The world's hottest chilli may have been produced by four UK students. Gauged in the hotness meter, the attempt was technically a success. Unfortunately, however, the chilli was far too spicy for human beings to consume. The dish was so hot that smoke billowing from the cookout caused two neighbours next door to be very sick. Fearing carbon monoxide poisoning, Manchester University student Theresa Morgan called the emergency number 999.
Theresa and her friends were all dressed and getting ready for a party when the incident happened.
"We had all the windows open but we were in the house when everyone started coughing.
"There wasn't any smell and we couldn't see any smoke so we thought it was something like carbon monoxide.
"We saw the neighbours around us also coughing and rushing out of their houses so I called 999 right away."
Other neighbours thought similarly and feared a gas leak. The fire brigade was called in.
The hapless cooks apologised profusely to their neighbours. The spice from their contest had been so strong, its fumes actually seeped into the walls of four homes in the immediate vicinity. The homes had to be vacated and industrially fumigated.
Even the fire fighters were not spared. They rushed into the scene to investigate the cause and the damage but rushed out just as quickly, unable to stand the chilli fumes.
Theresa recounts : "They went into the house and came back out coughing, so then they put on gas masks, got a huge fan and had to fumigate the houses.
The fire fighters presently spoke with the residents and, with the help of a high pressure ventilator fan, cleared the homes safely for human habitation once again.
While the fire brigade took the incident in stride they declared that it was, by far, the most stupid thing they had seen in 20 years.
