"Pure stupidity:" Deathly afraid of spiders, man sets gas pump on fire after spotting one

DETROIT, Michigan -- A man pumping gas attempted to kill a spider -- and ended up setting the gas pump on fire!

Man sets gas pump on fire due to spider

Susan Adams watched the whole thing go down on Tuesday morning, September 22nd while she was working inside a Mobil gas station in Centerline, Michigan.

"He didn't have a cigarette. He didn't have anything on him at all, so all of a sudden I looked out and I seen flames," Adams said.

Adams stayed calm, hit the gas automatic stop button and quickly called the Centerline Fire Department.

Man sets gas pump on fire due to spider

Meanwhile, the man at the gas pump grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and put out the flames before firefighters arrived.

The man later told officials he had spotted a spider on his gas pump, and because he is deathly afraid of spiders, he pulled out a lighter and decided to burn the spider.

Man sets gas pump on fire due to spider

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what happened next. The man learned the hard way that gasoline is, in fact, flammable.

Employees at the gas station have been having fun with the video ever since.

Believe it or not, the man's vehicle was barely damaged by the flames.

And -- his embarrassing mistake didn't stop him from coming back to the gas station the next day -- almost as though nothing ever happened.

Man sets gas pump on fire due to spider

"He was sorry. He apologized. He was sorry. He didn't know and, it's just one of those things that happened. Stupidity. That's all I can call it...pure stupidity," Adams said.

Man sets gas pump on fire due to spider