In 2009 or so we had gotten a snow that was pretty deep, the first of the season, so I decided to crank up the snow blower. It had sat over the summer, so I gassed it up and pulled the cord. Stood at the back by the handles where I pulled the starter from and started feathering the throttle. Well, all of a sudden the thing ran like a raped ape, well beyond any rev limiter top number and then suddenly BANG. The engine exploded. The cylinder wall sprayed into the sheetrock wall and the piston rod blew into it. If I'd been standing beside it I would have been neutered.
It took only a few seconds for this whole sequence but it was eye opening!