Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Pumpkin explodes 'like a bomb', burning Hastings woman

Sahiban Hyde
Hawkes Bay Today·
15 May, 2019 05:20 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Havelock North's Florencia Ferrari displays a seemingly harmless pumpkin, a type which exploded on her and caused burns to her chest and wrist. Photo / Warren Buckland

Havelock North's Florencia Ferrari displays a seemingly harmless pumpkin, a type which exploded on her and caused burns to her chest and wrist. Photo / Warren Buckland

A Havelock North resident has burns on her face, chest and hand after a hot pumpkin exploded "like a bomb" when she picked it up out of her microwave.

Florencia Ferrari says she wants to tell her cautionary tale about the perils of microwaving the popular vegetable to prevent others from doing what she did.

On Friday she bought a small gem squash pumpkin from Countdown Hastings, and tried to cut it in half to prepare to cook a stuffed pumpkin meal in the oven.

"I tried to cut it in half, but it was too hard, the skin was too hard.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I put it in the microwave for a little over two minutes to soften the skin."

Disaster struck when she went to take the pumpkin out.

"The pumpkin had a little hole in the top from the knife.

"I saw water bubbling in the hole. I took a thick cloth to take it out, as soon as I touched it, it exploded.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It was like a little bomb. I still remember the noise. I am just lucky the microwave door wasn't closed."

Ferrari ended up with boiling hot exploded pumpkin all over her.

"I had pumpkin all over me, especially my face. My right wrist and chest got blisters.

Ferrari said her three month-old baby was playing on a mat close by.

"I am just glad that he was safe."

Following the explosion Ferrari paid a visit to the chemist to get treatment for her "very, very painful" injuries and they gave her some moisturiser to prevent infection.

She was also given dressings after a visit to Hastings Health Centre and is going back every day to get them changed.

Originally from Argentina, Ferrari has been a Hawke's Bay resident for the past year and half.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

For future purposes, she intends to treat every pumpkin with caution.

"People have different ways of cooking it. I suppose I wasn't doing it right."

Chef at Havelock North's Village Green Cafe Jason Karena said there was a number of different ways to cook a pumpkin but he'd never heard of anyone microwaving one before, even for a short period.

"I would never microwave a pumpkin.

"It's dry - in a microwave there's no air getting inside the pumpkin. It will want to expand."

Karena said it was like putting a giant egg it the microwave - it would eventually explode.

He recommended to prepare pumpkins for cooking, people should peel them before cutting them into smaller pieces.

He said roasting the smaller pieces at approximately 180C for 30 to 40 minutes would produce a tasty result, as would boiling and then mashing them.

Save
    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Silver Ferns arrive in Napier ahead of sold-out match against Proteas

22 Sep 04:53 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

Cyclone-hit culvert rebuilt with fish ladder and repurposed material

22 Sep 03:55 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

Charity begins at home as Magpies launch bid for home quarter-final

22 Sep 03:39 AM

Sponsored

Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable

22 Sep 01:23 AM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Silver Ferns arrive in Napier ahead of sold-out match against Proteas
Hawkes Bay Today

Silver Ferns arrive in Napier ahead of sold-out match against Proteas

It is the Silver Ferns' first international match in Hawke’s Bay since 2017.

22 Sep 04:53 AM
Cyclone-hit culvert rebuilt with fish ladder and repurposed material
Hawkes Bay Today

Cyclone-hit culvert rebuilt with fish ladder and repurposed material

22 Sep 03:55 AM
Charity begins at home as Magpies launch bid for home quarter-final
Hawkes Bay Today

Charity begins at home as Magpies launch bid for home quarter-final

22 Sep 03:39 AM


Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable
Sponsored

Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable

22 Sep 01:23 AM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP