Exploding wood burner caused by firewood that had grown around fragmentation grenade

A 22-year-old woman from Gmunden in Upper Austria narrowly escaped with her life after a fragmentation grenade exploded inside her wood burner on Sunday. Andrijana Mitrovic lit a fire at around 1pm on Sunday afternoon, and fed it with firewood she had bought from a local hardware store - the same place where she had bought the wood burner two months previously

Unbeknownst to her, the wood contained a World War II vintage fragmentation grenade. According to police spokeswoman Petra Datscher, the shell had most likely lodged in a tree during fighting more than 70 years ago, and the tree had then grown around the explosive, protecting it from the elements.
When the wood from the tree was harvested, the shell was still lodged hidden inside a log, which had been cut for firewood. The fire caused the shell to explode violently, but fortunately the wood burner was strongly-built, and contained the force of the blast. The glass door to the wood burner however was completely shattered.
Ms Mitrovic called the police, who brought in a specialist bomb disposal team. The team was able to confirm that the 8cm long by 2cm wide shell was a war relic, and determined that all the explosive was now burned away by the fire. Fortunately, no one was injured, and damage was limited to the wood burner. World War II munitions turn up on a regular basis in Austria.