OK, this is basic. There are certain things you do not do with a snow-blower. One of them is cleaning out clogged snow with your hands! I have seen more than one tragic case of this and the dangers are well publicised but for some reason, people keep doing it! The most recent case was a guy who figured, “I have gloves on, so I am not really using my fingers.” This is even MORE dangerous and you can’t really feel what is going on. This patient’s glove got caught in the blades the moment the snow was clear and the fabric pulled his hand into the mechanism - taking off three fingers. The really sad part is that snow blowers tend to mangle the fingers and thus they are not readily re-attachable. The simple solution? TURN THE THING OFF before any attempt is made to clean it! Another patient stuffed the end of a snow shovel into the blades to try to clear them, and when the blades started spinning again, the shovel flipped up violently, smashing him in the face. The third weird case involved a person of smallish build who was pushing the snow blower up a steep driveway, the thing rolled back knocking her over and breaking her leg. Well, at least it did not cut anything off! Finally, the easiest solution, just pay some neighbourhood kids to clear your snow! This avoids snow blower pitfalls, and the equally tragic snow shovelling-induced heart attack in the out of shape 50 year old.