The experts NBC hired to conduct the demonstration insisted that the rockets wouldn't matter unless fuel spilled. They also told them that the explosion was sparked by a broken headlamp, not the rockets they added as part of the demonstration.
Additionally, the demonstration was designed not as a scientific test, but as a demonstration of something that had been proven to happen in the past. The problem was that the audience was likely mislead into believing it was an experiment as opposed to a dramatic recreation. They didn't create the story out of thin air.
Regardless it was 25 years ago, and the news organization in question was shamed, retracted the story, and made a apology.
A: In principle yes, but: it wasn't Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov but Aleksander Aleksandrovich Aleksandrov; he is not from Moscow but from Odessa; it was not a car but a bicycle; he didn't win it, but it was stolen from him.
From the linked article: "It looked like a studio shot because they are using studio lights, outside, at night. They are standing on a raised wooden frame built especially for their reports."
https://www.metabunk.org/debunked-cnns-fake-news-broadcasts-...