A British town council has used the true story of a US city that blew up a beached whale in the 1970s, as a lesson on COVID-19 safe practices.

The city council of Doncaster, in England's north, sent out a series of tweets earlier this week comparing those who breach public safety orders, with the people of a US town and the regrettable decision they made in the 1970s to detonate explosives under a rotting beached whale.

On November 9, 1970, a 14-metre sperm whale washed ashore in Florence, a coastal town in Oregon.

On November 9, 1970, a 14-metre sperm whale washed ashore in Florence, a coastal town in Oregon. (KATU)

Locals were unsure of what to do about it and came up with the following three options:

1. While it had already began to rot and smell unpleasant, they could leave it to decompose and let nature take its course.

2. They could cut it into smaller pieces and bury the segments.

3. They could blow it up with dynamite and hope that seagulls would eat all the debris.

The town's people decided to go with option three and see what happened.

The engineer in charge of the explosion, George Thornton, admitted to local media he was unsure how much dynamite to use but felt half a tonne should do the trick.

A former military officer advised Mr Thornton and other officials this was way too much and just a few sticks of dynamite would suffice.

The engineer in charge of the explosion, George Thornton, admitted to local media he was unsure how much dynamite to use but felt half a tonne should do the trick. (KATU)

Turns out the military officer was right and when Mr Thornton and officials detonated the explosives in front of media and a large crowd of excited spectators, it resulted in large chunks of rotting whale blubber flying through the air and raining down on the horrified people of Florence.

A car parked 400 metres away even got crushed by a large chunk of the carcass.

Unfortunately, despite the amount of debris that flew into the air, the main part of whale remained in the same beach location.

Doncaster Council chose this unusual piece of Oregon history as a lesson about coronavirus and staying home to "flatten the curve".

"As far as we can see, there are three coronavirus lessons here," Doncaster Council tweeted.

Top tips on how to self-isolate. (9News)

The lessons the council's official Twitter account posted were:

1. Don't ignore the advice that experts give you – They know what they are talking about.

2. Sometimes, it's better to just sit at home and do nothing, than go outside and do something ridiculous. Let nature take its course.

3. When you ignore expert advice and act like an idiot, you cover everyone else with decaying whale blubber. Stay at home and stop being selfish.

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