Tam recounts a story from the TODAY show, where a grown man admitted on television, in front of the nation (or well, at least about 1.6% of the nation) that he was afraid of using a fire extinguisher. Not in the panic of a house fire, mind you, but in a controlled environment, meant to teach people how to use fire extinguishers. If I had done that, my father (a volunteer firefighter for 45 years and counting) would have disowned me. I’ve had a few pan fires, and never really thought much about dumping baking soda or going to the fire extinguisher. Putting the lid on the pan does the trick. Oven fires will generally go out on their own if you turn off the oven and just leave the door closed.
If Jeff Rossen and Savannah Guthrie are intimidated by an ordinary household fire extinguisher, I wonder what they would think of mine?
Sometimes I don’t think it’ll be that long before we’re all buying Brawndo.
It’s got electrolytes!
When the only adrenaline jolts you’re ever had in your life are from fear or fight/flight reflex triggers, you might go out of your way to avoid incurring them.
Wow. Just wow.
By the end of the summer we’re going to light some diesel in an open drum and teach the kids what to do. It’s the same drill I did as a kid, and also the same drill they made us go through in the military.
My oldest just turned 7. She’s capable. Which leads me to ponder how mentally-old this Rossen guy is?
How do you get a pool of diesel to even ignite?
Long torch.
Diesel is perfect because it is non-volatile and lights up without too much work (but needs a torch). I remember the chain-gang we had in the military class where we all had to line up and put it out one by one. The nice thing was that previous bouts of extinguisher did not stop it from lighting.
Given I am only going to have about 3-4 kids at the time, I might just have them each put out a different ‘smore pit. Diesel smells like shit.
This is the same guy that did a segment saying you should fight off home invaders with car keys
http://www.westernjournalism.com/fail-nbc-today-show-offers-worst-advice-for-home-invasion-defense/
wow.
And +1 for the Idiocracy reference!
Its got everything plants crave!
Personally, I lol’ed at the one wondering if dumping flour on the fire would work.
Yeah, I would like to have seen her try that. Part of me thinks they were just trying to dispel some common myths, and used the banter as a means to do that. I kind of hope that’s the case.
Dumping flour on a fire? That’s a good way to start a dust explosion.
I can attest that in the corporate culture, mind-numbing safety has taken over all the executive’s minds. Meetings must be proceeded by “safety moments” and info that if there is an alarm, it’s not a fire drill because one isn’t scheduled. We’re told there are fire extinguishers on all levels, but it’s preferred we didn’t use them. We don’t have the training, so leave that to the firefighters and just get yourself out of harms way. Sounds familiar hmm? If only law prescribed that defensive tools be placed strategically around buildings where large groups of people gathered and potential for catastrophe, even though remote, existed.
I now know where the closest fire extinguisher is to me in my office and am prepared to use it! Take that! #firstworldrebel
That’s not about safety.
That’s about lawsuits.
If you try to fight the fire with that provided extinguisher, and die, your family will [in principle] sue them for a few million dollars.
Those extinguishers are there because code says they have to be, not for you to use.
I remember our 5th grade science teacher teaching us how to use a fire extinguisher. And the 8th grade shop teacher. That school also taught me white privileged skills like how to read, write, add and subtract; while indoctrinating me on outdated, useless documents like the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Emancipation Proclamation, and US history.
If I’m not mistaken, that’s a high-capacity assault extinguisher, which out to be banned.
Not only hi-cap, but it has the spraying thingy that goes up!
In a college Chemistry lab, I once dumped a beaker of what I thought was water into a sink. It was hexane, with chips of sodium.
A sink-to-ceiling flame resulted, and after a split second of “WOW!” I grabbed the fire extinguisher – all 50 pounds of it – and prepared to extinguish the blaze. In those few seconds the blaze had decreased to a less impressive 2′ to 3′ of flame in the sink, but I had the extinguisher in my hands and recall thinking, “I’ll never get to do this again.”
Blasting an entire extinguisher into a sink was a lot of fun. Fortunately, I was correct in not getting to do that again.
However, when my little home kitchen extinguishers have been around for a year or so and the pressure charge is almost extinct, I have had my kids practice with them in the back yard. Much fun was had, their safety knowledge was increased and I insured they’ll never be the wimp afraid of blasting an extinguisher at something needing extinguished.
When fire extinguishers are outlawed, only outlaws will have fire extinguishers!!!