Exploding beer keg kills two at party

Two friends have died after a beer keg exploded while they were setting it up during a party in Brazil this weekend.

According to the reports, the keg supplier had failed to assemble the kit, and the two victims had subsequently taken it upon themselves to install the keg.

Valdeir dos Santos Ferreira and Julio Cesar Venancio were installing the beer keg in the backyard of a property, which was located in Sao Joao de Meriti, Rion de Janeiro on Saturday, when it exploded.

Ferreira, who was celebrating his birthday, died at the scene and Venancio was taken to a hospital but died two days later.

Although it is unknown what caused the explosion, it was reported to local media by a local draft beer trader that a valve failure or the barrel’s CO2 regulator could have failed and caused the explosion.

The trader, Rodrigo Kaminski, said that the keg “may not even have had a safety valve” and he claimed that images he had seen showed it was an old keg, which should have been scrapped.

He also said that “too much” CO2 may have entered the keg, but admitted that “only forensics will be able to confirm what actually happened”.

At the time of writing, the police are investigating the deaths and said the cause of the explosion was yet to be determined.

The news follows a similar incident in 2021, when Gilson do Nascimento, a locksmith from Brazil, was also killed at his birthday party while trying to fix a keg of beer.

The 43-year-old was reported to have been setting up the keg for his own party, and attempted to fix the beer keg as only foam was coming out, according to Rio Grande Do Sul who first reported this story.

The beer keg exploded and hit Nascimento.