Give a tip of the hat to Neil Boortz for listing this on his “reading assignments” list. It turns out that some city officials in the UK have determined, “The life-saving devices encourage untrained people to fight a fire rather than leave the building…”
Gomer Pyle would have said, “Goooooooolly!” or “Shazam!”
Several years ago Lucy and I were out on our regular Saturday Night Date. We’d gone to Pappas Seafood Restaurant near Greenspoint Mall and were about finished eating when my cell phone rang. Normally I don’t answer while out on our date; only looking to see who it was and letting it go into voice mail. Caller ID showed it was coming from my home phone and I figured it must be important, one of the kids needed something.
“Dad, do we have another fire extinguisher?” Let me tell you, that’s one question you don’t want to hear when you’re out and about. William happened to be in the kitchen when he noticed smoke coming out from the space between the built in oven and the microwave. He had sense enough to run out to the garage, switch the power off to the house, run back inside where he grabbed the fire extinguisher that’s hung on the side of one of the kitchen cabinets and then empty the contents into the area where the billowing smoke was coming from.
“Check Please!” We left for home and it was still standing. The kitchen was a mess from the flames licking at the sides of the cabinet which held the built in oven and microwave and there was smoke throughout the house. Other than that everything was okay, the fire had been contained and not spread upwards.
The fireman told us that with the fire being inside the wall it would have taken only a couple of minutes and the whole house would have gone; a wire to the electric oven had gotten loose and ignited the fire at the base of the wall.
Maybe the folks over in the UK should be reading this account of how a fire extinguisher was used by someone with common sense to save a house from being consumed by fire. I forgot, the UK was the setting for Ray Bradury’s famous Sci-fi book, Fahrenheit 451, where firemen are called to set fires, not put them out.
“Look, there’s going to be a fire!” the little boy pointing to an elaborate fire truck speeding down the road headed toward a location which has been found to hide books or some other contraband.
Gomer Pyle would have said, “Goooooooolly!” or “Shazam!”
Several years ago Lucy and I were out on our regular Saturday Night Date. We’d gone to Pappas Seafood Restaurant near Greenspoint Mall and were about finished eating when my cell phone rang. Normally I don’t answer while out on our date; only looking to see who it was and letting it go into voice mail. Caller ID showed it was coming from my home phone and I figured it must be important, one of the kids needed something.
“Dad, do we have another fire extinguisher?” Let me tell you, that’s one question you don’t want to hear when you’re out and about. William happened to be in the kitchen when he noticed smoke coming out from the space between the built in oven and the microwave. He had sense enough to run out to the garage, switch the power off to the house, run back inside where he grabbed the fire extinguisher that’s hung on the side of one of the kitchen cabinets and then empty the contents into the area where the billowing smoke was coming from.
“Check Please!” We left for home and it was still standing. The kitchen was a mess from the flames licking at the sides of the cabinet which held the built in oven and microwave and there was smoke throughout the house. Other than that everything was okay, the fire had been contained and not spread upwards.
The fireman told us that with the fire being inside the wall it would have taken only a couple of minutes and the whole house would have gone; a wire to the electric oven had gotten loose and ignited the fire at the base of the wall.
Maybe the folks over in the UK should be reading this account of how a fire extinguisher was used by someone with common sense to save a house from being consumed by fire. I forgot, the UK was the setting for Ray Bradury’s famous Sci-fi book, Fahrenheit 451, where firemen are called to set fires, not put them out.
“Look, there’s going to be a fire!” the little boy pointing to an elaborate fire truck speeding down the road headed toward a location which has been found to hide books or some other contraband.
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