To each his own. To me my own.

Posts tagged “Fire

More firsts

Last night I had a monumental moment – I built my very own fire. This might sound silly to some of you, but for as long as I can remember someone else has always built them. It’s good to know I can make one on my own.

Of course, I had some help from the little match-lights. As warm as it’s been, it could very well be the last fire of the season and I was proud to have built it.

It’s the little things in life… like how my cat now thinks I am a god.

😀

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Oil and water really DON’T mix…

When I came into work yesterday, I found out a coworker had an ‘incident’ in the kitchen over the weekend for which he was awarded several severe burns. After a couple days of coworkers hounding him about possible infection, he’s finally making a trip to the doctor today. The large area on his arm appears to be third-degree.

The short story goes something like this. He left a pot heating on the stove filled with oil, no less – and walked upstairs and forgot about it until the smoke alarms started blaring. He ran back down to the kitchen and saw the flames, panicked, and threw a pail of water on the flames. Of course the water reacted much like gasoline when tossed on top of the grease fire, blowing the fire back at him. It severely burned the back of his forearm, his neck, and side of his face. He is extremely lucky to have gotten away with the burns he has, and that it wasn’t more severe.

In hindsight, he said he should have taken an extra second and stepped back to assess the situation. He stressed the importance to us of having a couple of extinguishers available, and checking the working condition of them regularly. It sure got me thinking – even after all the fire training we’ve had here at work, I can see me doing exactly what he did under duress. That is until now! When you come face to face with the results of a poor decision like that, it really packs a punch in the ole’ kisser.

In an emergency situation, it’s all too easy to make that snap decision you’ll regret – something I think we can compare to life itself. I know one thing, I don’t think I’ll be throwing water on a grease fire anytime soon.

The following information gathered via http://www.ehow.com

How to Put Out a Grease Fire

Don’t be caught unprepared when cooking in the kitchen. If you are working with grease or oil, it is critical that you know what to do in the event it catches fire. Should you ever find yourself faced with a grease fire in your kitchen, follow these steps to ensure that it is extinguished quickly and safely.

Instructions

  1. Place a metal lid over the flame. Do not use glass since the heat from the fire can cause it to break.
  2. Smother the fire with a liberal amount of baking soda if it is relatively small and contained. Try finding a lid if possible. Because it requires so much baking soda to extinguish a fire, a lid is faster and generally more effective than baking soda.
  3. Spray the fire with a Class B dry chemical fire extinguisher. Use this method if it is your only option, because it will ruin food and contaminate kitchen dishes and utensils.
  4. Use a Class K wet chemical fire extinguisher if it is available. Though more effective for extinguishing large grease fires, these are generally found only in commercial settings.
  5. Call 911 immediately if the fire is not quickly extinguished or if it grows too large to be controlled. Leave immediately if you feel threatened or endangered in any way!!

Gone

It’s still heavy on my mind this morning. I was on the phone with my guy yesterday while he was on the way home from work. He mentioned a traffic backup and slews of firetrucks en route somewhere in the vicinity of our old high school, including choppers hovering above. We casually dismissed it, then I found out the news. A good friend of mine lost her house in a fire.

It’s a complete loss. Her daughter and mother were home at the time and got out okay, but the mother went back in for something and collapsed in the living room from smoke inhallation – she is now in the hospital in ICU. They lost three pets and two are still missing. Anyone who has ever suffered a complete loss of their home through a fire can understand what these folks are going through – but to the rest of us, it’s just unfathomable. This was also my friend’s childhood home. I simply cannot imagine.

The facebook community has really come together for her on this. You know, I just can’t say enough about the ole’ social networking thing, it still never ceases to amaze me. It’s truly heartwarming and comforting to see the outpouring of love and offers of help to her and her family. All of our friends are rushing to her aid – these are mostly people who we’ve all known since childhood and went to school with. That in itself is really something, isn’t it?

Please say a prayer for the Helms family. Read story here