Spotted in the camping and outdoor aisle of a local supermarket: butane gas canisters.

I’m not sure if this is a thing you can buy in supermarkets overseas, I know that there are a lot of places with a lot more rules and regulations than South Africa. But just along the shelf from this extremely flammable gas, I could also buy a BIG KNIFE. I know that’s not allowed in the UK. I guess knives are less of a thing here: thinking of using a knife as an offensive weapon is SA would really be like bringing a knife along to a gunfight.

Literally.

But the butane gas canisters:

Now, I have a bit of an issue with the big orange and white bit. Because stating

NO MORE EXPLOSION

in big letters and bright colours on your product does seem to suggest that a) it’s your main selling point, and b) that there have previously been explosion. And indeed, the somewhat basic diagram just below that does indeed indicate that Other brand (this is funny because ‘brand’ is Afrikaans for ‘fire’) does explosion.

But apparently you’re safe with BUSH BABY butane.
Their C₄H₁₀ is obviously just less likely to explosion than that Other brand.

And that’s good news.

I’m not into camping or the outdoors stuff much. I’d rather find a local cafe to do a bacon sandwich than risk explosion while cooking my own. (And if I was going to cook my own, I’d braai it anyway.) But is explosioning gas canisters (of any brand) really a thing? Surely we would have heard about this? There would be injuries and deaths, and tales from that campsite in the Cedarberg that everyone goes to, of those injuries and deaths.

Or is everyone already using Bush Baby butane? And precisely for that reason.

Please enlighten me. But not with a naked flame.

UPDATE: Many thanks to Andrew Fraser who found a CRV on the Bush Baby Butane. If anything is going to mean No More Explosion, that’s probably it.