A celebration turned into tragedy last week, after a Brazilian cancer survivor was killed by a beer keg explosion.
According to the Daily Star, the incident occurred on Sept. 17 in Rio Grande do Sul, where Gilson do Nascimento was celebrating his 43rd birthday with friends and family. The outlet reports that some point during the night, Nascimento realized the beer wasn’t flowing from the tap correctly, so he called the keg rental company for assistance.
“… They gave him instructions on how to start fixing it until they arrived,” one of his nieces told the Daily Star. “The beer wasn’t coming out, only foam.”
Nascimento, who owns a locksmith company, began tinkering with the keg at around 6 p.m. local time; but in the midst of his efforts, the barrel reportedly exploded, causing metal fragments to hit his head. The Daily Star reports the man’s wife, sister, and 15-year-old son were in attendance.
“We are interviewing witnesses at the scene at the time of the incident,” Police spokesperson Clovis Nei da Silva told the publication, adding Nascimento’s death is being investigated as an accident. “For now, the incident has been registered and an autopsy has been requested.”
A lawyer for Chopp Express—the company that reportedly supplied the keg—said Nascimento was told not to touch the dispenser as he waited for a repair man to arrive. Attorney Jose Adelmo de Oliveira claims the Nascimento had been killed by the time the technician arrived at the party. Investigators are now trying to determine whether the keg was faulty.
The tragedy came about six years after Nascimento had beat cancer. An autopsy was reportedly performed on Sept. 18 and he was buried on the day after.
“He was a warrior, a working man, a wonderful family man,” his godmother, Angela Maria de Oliveira, told Brazilian outlets. “He was everything to us. He will be sorely missed in our lives, it was a full house with him, always a full house.”
