David Shapshak
A flamethrower system fitted to cars to ward off hijackers has attracted huge international attention.
In the same week South Africa hit the headlines with the discovery of a 3,5- million-year-old skeleton, a local entrepreneur was attracting nearly as much attention for an entirely different reason.
Charl Fourie’s flamethrower will launch a fireball from either side of the car within seconds, frightening off, or roasting, any would-be hijackers. “It’s quite fierce,” he laughs.
Fourie’s system uses a gas canister in a car’s boot that ejects liquid gas through two nozzles below the front doors. A 14 000V spark ignites the gas, that billows up into a “a nice ball of flame.
“The whole idea is to fend off an attack. Fire works really well and people are really afraid of it. The natural reaction is to run away as fast as possible,” he says.
Reports of the invention have been aired on several TV networks, including CNN and Sky.
Fourie says this is the first system which focuses on stopping hijackings.
For just R3 900 you can have a Blaster, as it’s known, fitted to your car. Twenty-five people have the device already and “hundreds” have ordered it for installation in the new year.
The system’s first recipient, Superintendent David Walkley, head of the Johannesburg police’s crime intelligence, assured Fourie the system was perfectly legal if used in self- defence.
The system is activated by breaking the tough plastic seal on a switch located next to the foot pedals, after a code has been entered into a keypad on the dashboard. Marshmallows are optional.