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Did an elderly couple from Sand Springs, Oklahoma burn down their house after a sex game involving a flamethrower? No, that's not true: the story was made up by a Canadian entertainment website that makes a living by publishing fictional stories often involving weird crimes, bizarre sex acts or strange accidents. It is not real.

The story originated from an article published by World News Daily Report on January 30, 2019 titled "Elderly couple accidentally burns house down during sex game involving WW2 flamethrower" (archived here) which opened:

Sand Springs, Oklahoma | A couple's sexual game turned horribly wrong this morning, as they accidentally burned their house to the ground with a 75-year old flamethrower.

Firefighters were called on the site around 11:15 this morning after receiving an unusual phone call but could do nothing to save the 45-year old house from being a total loss.

Nancy Brown, the 911 operator who answered the call from 96-year old Maurice Fogerty, says she first thought she was dealing with pranksters when he told her he had "torched the house with napalm while having sex with his wife".

"He told me he was penetrating his wife with his M1, as usual, but got too excited and activated the flamethrower."

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:

Elderly couple accidentally burns house down during sex game involving WW2 flamethrower

Sand Springs, Oklahoma | A couple's sexual game turned horribly wrong this morning, as they accidentally burned their house to the ground with a 75-year old flamethrower. Firefighters were called on the site around 11:15 this morning after receiving an unusual phone call but could do nothing to sav

But the picture used with the story is just a still from a stock video:

Firemen spray water on a burning house from the front and back Stock Video Footage - Storyblocks Video

Firemen spray water on a burning house from the front and back royalty free stock video and stock footage. Download this video clip and other motion backgrounds, special effects, After Effects templates and more.

The "M1" designation has been used by the U.S. military for a variety of things (for example a helmet, a rifle, a tank...) but also for a flamethrower so that part of the story checks out.

M1 flamethrower - Wikipedia

Development of the weapon began in July 1940. The first prototype had the designation of E1. The prototype was further refined into the E1R1 model, which resulted in the adopted M1 model in August 1941. These man-portable weapons saw little use in Europe.

But the website World News Daily Report is a well known satire website specialized in posting hoaxes and made up stories. The disclaimer on their website is pretty clear about that even though you have to scroll all the way down the page to find it:

World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website - even those based on real people - are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle.

On March 20, 2019 the site added a new header that included the slogan "Where facts don't matter" to make it clearer to casual visitors the published content is fictional:

It is run by Janick Murray-Hall and Olivier Legault, who also run the satirical Journal de Mourréal, a satirical site spoofing the (real) Journal de Montéal. Very often their stories feature an image showing a random crazy mugshot found in a mugshot gallery on the internet or on a stock photo website superimposed over a background of flashing police lights or crime scene tape.

Articles from the site are frequently copied (sometimes even months or years later) by varous fake news websites that omit the satire disclaimer and present the information as real.

NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes worldnewsdailyreport.com as:

A website that publishes hoaxes and made-up stories that are often widely shared and mistaken for news.

According to NewsGuard the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.

We wrote about worldnewsdailyreport.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:

• Fake News: 63-year-old Daycare Owner Did NOT Breastfeed Toddlers in Public While Smoking Crystal Meth
• Fake News: Cousins NOT Arrested After Refusing to Stop Having Sex During Funeral Ceremony
• Fake News: Man Did NOT Ejaculate in Boss' Coffee Every Day For Four Years
• Fake News: Man Did NOT Undergo $200,000 of Plastic Surgery to Look Like Jesus Christ
• Fake News: Homeless Man's Penis NOT Snapped In Half During Sex With Manhole Cover