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Forum topic by Eric Sutton | posted 06-09-2009 04:50 PM | 1682 views | 1 time favorited | 8 replies | ![]() |
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06-09-2009 04:50 PM |
We received a call this morning at the fire department, on the NON-emergency business line. ‘Twas a local dentist who was building a new office building. He asked us to come over and check out what he said was a “small incident” that we should know about. This is what we found… Turns out a young apprentice was staining doors and windows yesterday and tossed the rags out the window into a plastic bucket on the ground outside. Seems the contractor forgot to teach the young man about spontaneous combustion! In the foreground you can see what’s left of the plastic bucket that was against the building when we arrived. Luckily for all of us it rained pretty hard just after the fire began its climb up the exterior of the building. Under the vinyl siding is osb sheathing and the window is vinyl clad wood. Without the rain I would still be at work this morning! We all know that this stuff happens but it always seems to happen to “someone else.” Keep in mind that to the firefighters you probably are someone else! It only takes a moment to look around when you leave the shop and make sure everything is as it should be. I’ve done far too many of these ‘oily rag’ calls in my 20 years on the job. It’s rarely a wood worker or a craft shop that makes the mistake so please take a minute and share the knowledge with someone you encounter that’s working a DIY project and may not know that dangers of simply disposing of the wiping rags. And for you “believers” out there, here’s the rest of the story…the dentist was having trouble sleeping last night and finally gave up at 4:00am and decided to go into the office to do some paperwork. On the way he made a last minute decision to make a detour and check out his new building. He knew the contractor had been working ‘out back’ the day before so he walked around to check out the work. Apparently karma rules because this guy is a great dentist and quite the contributor to our community. -- IAFF L2737 Cortland NY |