Two recent photographs...

[elfs]

Trash fire

On my way from the pet food store to the bus stop, I noticed this trash can smoldering and giving off smoke in front of a "real women have real bodies" clothing store in the commercial district nearest to my home. I looked in and saw that someone had dumped a thick advertising flier on top of what is normally an outdoor ashtray, and a cigarette had set the paper on fire.

I went into the store and said to the first person I saw with an identification badge, "Excuse me, do you know that there's a fire in your trashcan?"

"Oh my god! There is?" The woman ran to the door, looked out, and said, "Oh my god!" again. She ran to the back, pulled out another woman to look at it, then said to me, "Do you know how to use a fire extinguisher? We're all women in here. We don't know how."

After recovering from that non-sequitor, I told her, "It's not a grease fire, it's a paper fire, it's very small and contained. Just pour a pitcher of cold water on it and put it out."

"Really?"

"Yes, really." I watched her run to the back. I went out to snap the photo, she came back out with one of those plastic pitchers you usually find filled with beer and she put the fire out. But, grief, "I'm a woman so I can't handle a fire extinguisher?" That's the stupidest thing I've heard yet, and I'm reading the political blogs!

---

Plug!

I saw this standing outside the Seattle Art Museum, and my first thought upon seeing it was, "Once upon a time, with enough lube I might have been able to take that!"

Comments

[fenton.livejournal.com]

You've read the instructions. That puts you ahead of approximately 95% of the people who even *have* extinguishers near enough at hand to do any good, which is a tiny percentage of those that should.

Hell, I've been guilty of not bothering to get one, when I lived in an apartment complex, myself, but even then I could tell you the instructions for every extinguisher that I would ever have had to deal with in my daily life. Without looking.

On a separate note, if you'd *like* to be able to practice with one, I suggest contacting your local fire department. Many of them have 'demo' units that they can recharge on-site for minimal cost, specifically so that they can train folks in their use (a rechargeable unit isn't all that expensive, just more expensive than is worthwhile for things that, realistically, a consumer should never have to use more than once anyway).

[fenton.livejournal.com]

True, they aren't difficult, and the ones the fire department has tend to be more on the order of the large "can" style (a cylinder maybe 3 feet high and 9-12 inches across), so they're not identical to the small style intended for wall mounting in kitchens and the like.

On the other hand, there is something to be said for the sheer glee of getting to use one. Or maybe that's just me...