Badly burned man jailed for Kitchener drug-lab explosion
KITCHENER — A man who almost killed himself in a makeshift drug lab was sentenced Friday to five months in jail for blowing up a Kitchener house.
Rian O’Kane, 30, received third-degree burns to nearly half of his body and spent a month in an induced coma after the November 2010 blast on Carlyle Place.
He was extracting cannabis resin from marijuana in a small bathroom when fumes from butane, a solvent used in the process, were ignited by an unknown source.
The semi-detached house — which was owned by his girlfriend’s parents — sustained almost $100,000 damage.
The blast was so forceful it separated walls from ceilings, scattered insulation outside, knocked over furniture and blew the bathroom door across a hallway.