Spider-hunting nudist ends with burns

A funnel-web spider rears up on its hind legs at the Australian Reptile Park at Gosford in a 2001 file photo.

An Australian nudist who tried to set fire to what he thought was a deadly funnel web spider's nest ended up with badly burned buttocks, emergency officials said Monday.

The 56-year-old man was at a nudist colony near Bowral, about 60 miles southwest of Sydney, Sunday when he spotted what he believed to be a funnel web spider hole.

Ambulance workers, including a helicopter crew, were called to the scene after the man poured petrol down the hole and then lit a match in an attempt to kill the offending arachnid.

"The exploding gasoline fumes left the man with burns to 18 percent of his body, on the upper leg and buttocks ," the NRMA Careflight helicopter rescue service said in a statement.

It said the man's lack of clothing probably contributed to the extent of his burns.

"The fate of the bunkered spider was unknown, although other guests at the resort thought it was probably a harmless trapdoor spider and not a deadly funnel web," the statement said.

NRMA Careflight said it was called to a property in the same area in January when another man kicked a spider that was crawling up the wall of a friend's cabin. The man broke his leg in two places.

本周一，据澳大利亚处理突发事件的官员介绍，一位裸体主义者试图放火烧一只致命漏斗网蜘蛛的窝，结果自己的臀部被严重烧伤。

周日，这名56岁的男子在位于悉尼西南60英里Bowral小镇附近的一个裸体主义者居住区内发现了一个蜘蛛洞，他认为那是一只漏斗网蜘蛛的洞。

他将汽油浇到洞里，然后点了根火柴，试图将这只不怀好意的蜘蛛烧死。之后，救护人员被召集到出事现场，其中包括一支直升机救护队。

NRMA Careflight直升机救护队在事故报告中提到：“汽油燃烧产生的气体引起爆炸，造成这名男子全身18%的面积烧伤，烧伤部位集中在胳膊上半部分和臀部。”

报告说，可能是他身上没穿什么衣服，致使了较大面积的烧伤。

报告中说：“那只受困蜘蛛的命运目前还不清楚，来此处游玩的其他游客认为那可能只是一只没有什么害处的隐身蜘蛛，并不是漏斗网蛛。”

NRMA Careflight救援机队说，一月份，他们曾受命赶到这里的一间住所，当时的情况是，一名男子在他朋友房间用脚踢一只在墙上爬行的蜘蛛，结果他的腿两处断裂。

Vocabulary:

nudist : 裸体主义者

burn : 烧伤；灼伤（如：burns on the hand<手部的烧伤>）

buttocks : 臀部

be bunkered : 陷入难以摆脱的困境