After years and years of television safety and survival episodes, you'd think everyone had a list of "what to do if..."
Alas, we have more learning.
Get out your pencils kids.
Let's do some safety training...
RedditordirectinLAwanted to help us all compile a life list we should already have.
They asked:
"What is a safety tip everyone should know about?"
Don't give dogs chocolate.
That is a LIFE #1.
At least for fur parents.
Mistakes Cost
"Wear safety glasses when working. Wear safety gloves when working. Wear safety boots when working. Do not make excuses, one mistake can cost you your finger, eye, toe." ~ bstefanovic
GiphyListen Close...
"Firefighter here..."
"Sleep with your doors shut at night (helps prevent fire spread/smoke inhalation). Be able to crawl, blindfolded, out of every room in your house. Make sure everyone in your home knows what to do in the event of a fire."
"Where to meet afterwards, etc. If you have kids, explain to them that firefighters may look ‘scary’ in full turnout gear, but they can not be afraid of us. Friendly reminder while I have your attention; check the batteries in your smoke detector. They truly are life savers." ~ CharlieMike12
Car Support
"Put toilet paper in your cars." ~ lodoyox5
"Just walk through a supermarket. There are literally 1000s of food products that are packaged in sturdy, sealed containers that will not deteriorate or spoil in the heat while stored in a car. Canned foods come to mind immediately."
"Get the products that are self opening with pull open can lids to eliminate the need to keep track of a can opener. Juice in large bottles that can be kept as juice or the bottle can become a water container. The list of potential emergency food and water is endless if just given a little thought." ~ memskeptic
Protip...
"When you cut wood or metal, the chips fly faster than you are able to blink." ~ jesusSaidThat
"Here is a protip. Eye glass material counts. Some cheap eyewear will shatter or not stop anything.. The good ones will deform and are made of polycarbonate. I think 3M makes a good trustworthy one." ~ Specific-Layer
Hello Doc...
"If you you have a skin mole that has blurry edges, isn't symmetrical, is a weird shade of red, weeps fluids or acts like an open wound that won't heal, you might have skin cancer. Go to a doctor IMMEDIATELY. Melanoma kills fast." ~ vivav5
GiphyI worry about every skin blemish.
So now I have more mole worry.
Bloody Issues...
"If you're treating a gunshot victim while waiting on an ambulance, the best thing you can do is apply constant pressure to the wound. Bind it if you can. But, whatever you do, absolutely do not remove bandages if they get too bloody. Just add more. Don't give the wound any chances to bleed out more than it already is." ~ bamece3
GiphyThe Stairs
“It is better to correct an unsafe friend than to bury one." ~ LamarB
"I tried so hard to try and stop a friend from seeing if he could jump an entire flight of stairs. He almost launched me down it trying to push past me. I held him back a lot but he was determined and I wasn't going to get messed up on his account. He broke the crap out of his ankles." ~ khaominer
In Florida...
"As a life long Floridian, I see this all the time here, and else where in the news. In the event of a disaster, stay the hell away from downed power lines!! Don’t walk along the street with them, don’t drive your car over them, don’t take selfies with them. They’re thunder noodles and have been known to kill." ~ kowog1
Blue
"The gates on a railroad crossing are meant to break away when driven through. If your car ever stalls out on a crossing don't bother with 911, look for the blue sign posted on the crossing gates themselves and call that number. That number will get you in contact with the train dispatcher who can let oncoming trains know about it immediately." ~ M3T4LL1CA
Stay Thirsty
"You cannot drink the waters from cactuses in emergency due to acidity and toxic alkaloids, which causes vomiting, diarrhea and mass dehydration especially when you're hungry or thirsty." ~ peachie_bongo
GiphyI always hated cacti.
I hope everyone has paid attention.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
Nobody should ever be shamed for losing things in a fire.
It's an awful, unexpected occurrence. But, it is preventable, and not all fires are started in uncontrollable or unexpected ways.
u/f1_77Bottasftw asked:
Firefighters of Reddit, what's the dumbest way you've seen someone accidently start a house fire?
Here were some of those answers.
The Wrong Workshop
In the city of Colorado Springs, the local news did a fluff piece about candle safety near Christmas. After they were done filming , the store owner that they were filming in took the crew out to breakfast. She didn't put out the candles, and burned several shops to the ground. The film crew was there to film her breakdown when they realised what caused the fire.
Just Dumb Sometimes
I worked for a restoration company. A family cut a small tree down and tried to stuff it up their fireplace to burn. The flue was so crammed with leaves that smoke started to fill the living room. They tried to pull the tree out and that's when it REALLY caught fire. They tried to pull it out of the house, they got as far as the front door. All of them had 2nd/3rd degree burns on their hands/arms and the fire destroyed the front room and entry way of their house. The insurance company asked us if we thought it was a case of fraud, and we told them "No these people are just really stupid".
One Should Always Try To Stop Fires
A roomba knocked a scented candle over and set fire to the rest of the room. The guy said he knew the roomba did it because he watched the whole thing happen, but didn't do anything because he thought it was funny.
Yes, Cardboard Is Flammable
Teenager was charcoal grilling in the attached garage during the winter. When done he decided the best place to dispose of the hot coals was into a cardboard box in front corner of the garage closest to the house. Yeah, it went about as well as you can imagine.
Underbed Glamping
When my father in law was a kid, he really wanted to have a camp fire. His parents told him no. He was determined to have a camp fire so he went up to his room and started one under his bed so they wouldn't know. I keep that knowledge in my back pocket for whenever he wants to imply I'm an idiot.
Insurance Policy Covers Dumb, Don't You Worry
A fairly common one, but the response was interesting!
Early February, Western PA. Guy's pipes freeze on the coldest day of the year, -8F.
He tries to thaw them with a propane torch. Sets the wall on fire.
Tries to put the fire out. Fails. Finally calls 911.
Fire Chief is 1/2 block away. Is on-scene in under a minute. Basement is fully involved, main floor catching.
First engine arrives in under 5 minutes. Doors are blocked by fire, exterior attack only.
I'm on an attack line, spraying water into the 2nd-floor window. After 40 minutes, another firefighter comes to relieve me, but since I'd been getting backspray, I'm frozen to the ground. He has to pull me loose.
2 hours later, we have it knocked down. The insurance adjuster shows up. Asst. Chief explains what started the fire.
Adjuster replies, "Oh, yeah, we know. It's OK, we insure for Stupid!"
(Nobody got hurt. Family gets a much nicer house out of the deal.)
She Never Took Science
My Dad was a firefighter, and he once went to a house fire that was started by the old lady who lived there. She liked to burn candles, but didn't like the wax buildup that would form in the cavity, so she would soak up the liquid wax with a napkin. She was doing this when she accidentally brushed a wax soaked napkin up against the flame. She panicked and threw the napkin into the trash . . . where all the other wax napkins were. As the trashcan exploded into flames she fled the house, but not before she went to her oxygen tanks and FLOODED THE HOUSE WITH PURE OXYGEN, because she thought that it would smother the fire.
Are We Blacksmiths?
I am a firefighter but this wasn't in my district. A guy was attempting to forge a sword in a burn barrel in an alley, based on something he watched on the History Channel. The embers from the "forge" lit up the building he lived in and destroyed 3 multi family residential buildings.
It Backfired
Not a house fire, but really good!
Late 1980s. Guy was driving an old, beat-up Lincoln. He turned a corner to go up a steep hill, but the road dept. had recently ground the asphalt down in preparation to repave. A storm sewer manhole cover was sticking up about 4". As he went over it and up the hill, the rear of his car dragged due to the pavement height difference, and the manhole ripped open his fuel tank and sparked off the gas.
Guy described it- "I heard a scraping sound, looked in the mirror, and there was this trail of FIRE chasing me up the hill, like I was the Road Runner!"
He pulled into a gravel parking lot and tried to kick a break in the trail before the fire got there, but it jumped the gap and lit the car. By the time we got there, it was a total loss.
He actually thought it was kind of funny. The only real loss was his wife's purse, with her license and credit cards. The car was insured, and they got a pretty nice payout for it.
Lairy Fights
This happened this past fall, but a family had a "fairy house" that was outside, right next to their wood sides house. The fairy house was made out of an old tree, and had a bunch of decorations in it, including incense candles. One evening, they decided that they would light the candles for the fairy's, which then caught the tree on fire, which then extended into the house. Since it started on the outside, it ran up the side of the house and got into the attic and second floor. The family was home, but in the first floor while this was happening, it wasn't until someone driving on the road saw the smoke and went to alert the family. Luckily, we were able to save the structure, there was a bit of damage to the roof, attic and second floor, but the homeowners are rebuilding those areas.
Firefighters Share The Stupidest Situations They Have Had To Save Someone From
911 isn't always used correctly or well.
Sometimes people call 911 when they really don't have to. Other times people get themselves stuck in the dumbest situations.
Firefighters are on the front line of these dumb situations more often than not.
u/FutureAce078 asked:
Fire Fighters of reddit, what's the dumbest person you had to save in a stupid situation?
Here were some of those answers.
Barely Alive
Dumb jerk tried to cross a raging river in zero degree weather about a 300 foot span on a snowmobile. He lived but didn't make the crossing and the machine was recovered days later.
Safety At The Expense Of Others
I once had a firefighter tell me he almost died in a house fire while going back into the house to look for the owner. A neighbor was concerned about why the firefighter was still in the residence so he asked another firefighter. This is about how the exchange went:
Neighbor: Why is that fireman still in the house?
Firefighter: He's looking for the owner of the home.
Neighbor: He is right over there with the video camera.
Turns out the owner did not think it was important to alert the fire department he was out of the house. Instead, he was just taking video of the whole event.
The fire started because the owner had tried to smother his barbecue cooker flame with left over wood from the siding that had been installed on his home. The owner did not realize it would burn. Burned his whole house down.
Whatever It Takes
I used to do a lot of disaster response work.
Hurricane Floyd. Eastern NC. I had a farmer with a large family that refused to evacuate his house. Stubborn jerk. River had broke loose, floodwaters were coming up fast, and the police had given up on changing his mind. I drove my truck right up into his yard, rolled down the window and asked him to dress his kids in something orange or bright yellow. He asked me why and I said "So body recovery will be able to distinguish them from all the dead pigs floating around."
He told me to sod off, but 5 minutes later he had the whole family in the vehicle and they got the hell out.
The Price Of Being Stubborn
We needed to close the main connection through a forest over the winter because the trees were falling faster on the road than we could remove them due to way to much snow falling. Also the redirection was more than an hour longer due to the snow.
Some cars thought that they would come through but turned around as soon as they saw the trees on the road.
One semi also thought he'd get through. He drove up to the trees and called the fire brigade and complained why we didn't remove the trees. As he was calling a bunch of trees behind him also fell locking him in.
It stood there one month before the trees and the snow could get removed by us that at least the semi can back out. We needed another month until the road was free again.
We Didn't Stop The Fire
I was called to a home to get a pie out of the over before it caught fire. The lady went to the store and was delayed for some reason. she called 911 to have the fire department take the pie out of the oven and place it on the stove. The call came in as " Something stuck in oven and unable to turn off stove". Still #1 call in 32 years :)
Boom Boom Splaaaaaaaa
Years ago we had this call straight out of Caddy Shack. Some guy had gotten tired of this gopher ruining his yard. Little did he know though he was facing the Sun Tzu of gophers. The homeowner, dwelling upon his experience from Vietnam, decided that the best way to deal with the gopher was to treat the situation like a VC tunnel, in lieu of a frag grenade he poured a five gallon can of gasoline down the gopher hole, waited with a varmint gun, and lit it off.
The ensuing explosion caused a small crater to form in his yard. I am still thoroughly impressed that there was a proper fuel to air ratio in the network of tunnels that allowed for such an explosion to happen. However the gopher refused to surrender without a fight. The gopher ran out of the hole engulfed in flames, causing the guy's yard to catch on fire. The gopher sprinted into the guy's shed still on fire and burrowed into a void space in the wall, where he died. Like the martyr perk from Modern Warfare his still flaming remains set the inside of the wall on fire as well as several flammables.
In the end the guy's backyard was ruined and about a quarter of his shed burned down taking out a bunch of power tools and a zero turn mower. He definitely would have saved a few thousand dollars if he had hired an exterminator.
People Explain The Worst Thing That's Ever Happened To Them On Their Birthday
Locked Inside The Car
A motorist had a bad alternator and the car died while she/he was driving. The electric lock control stopped working. We were dispatched for a person trapped in a motor vehicle. On arrival, the advice was given to manually lift the lock knob.
You can easily tell the ones who will not survive the first 24 hours of the zombie apocalypse.
The Grossest Way To Live
Me and my dad are both firefighters and he said one time they went to a house because an elderly man could not get out of the leather recliner because he had been sitting in it for a week straight and his wife would just serve him drinks/ food and the guy never got up. He would just get drunk and urinate/defecate himself until he was physically stuck to the chair and they had to cut him out.
Dumb Kitty
i was the dumb call. my cat got her paw stuck under the dishwasher, and was screaming bloody murder. I couldn't move her paw and I couldn't lift the machine, so i sat with her while my husband called the fire department. She chewed right through one of my favorite blankets in her stress.
Fire fighters arrive, not in full suits but heavy boots and pants. Soon as they came around the corner to the kitchen our cat miraculously was able to free her paw and take off to hide in the bathroom.
The guys seemed confused, but at least it was easy? We thanked them profusely for being scary enough to free our cat, who had zero physical damage (not even a broken claw). I guess she'd hooked her claws on something and didn't want to let it go for love or money.
You Played Yourself
Had a fellow who was running from the police. He decided to climb on board a chunk of ice that was flowing down the river. I am sure he thought he was a genius at the time, but the issue is that there isn't really a whole lot north of our town for a few hundred miles, so his long term planning wasn't great. Eventually we found him hiding in a small icy overhang on the side of the river suffering from hypothermia.
After a brief stay in hospital he ended up being arrested.
Well...open flames have consequences.
Reader, if you are proceeding to these stories, do not try these at home---as has been proven, you WILL burn your house down.
And do you really want to be a firefighter's reason for epic face-palming?
TreatmentForYourRash asked:
"Firefighters of Reddit, what's the easiest way to accidentally burn your house down?"
Here were some of the answers.
When Backfire Means The Best Possible Thing
A guy on my motorcycle forum once shared the story of how he fixed his broken coffee machine and how proud he was that he had actually managed to fix it. Three days later somebody broke into his house and the coffee machine was stolen among other things. The police didn't give him much hope, but two days later he received a call from the police - they had found all his stuff. When he asked them how they had found the thieves the police officer said: "They tried to use a coffee machine they had stolen from your house. It caught fire and burned their house half down."
GiphyIt Was The Potatoes
Fry homemade potato chips on a gas stove with a plastic kitchen bin next to it.....turn around for maybe 10 seconds....voila! Kitchen engulfed. Oh, and make sure the fire extinguisher is in the cupboard right next to the stove and therefore redundant.
Yo Quiero My House Intact
Husband is a firefighter. I would say that 90 percent of the fires I hear about are food left on the stove. Someone comes home drunk, decides to cook, then passes out while the food is cooking.
Expert advice: Just go to Taco Bell.
Woodshop Woes
Not an easy way to burn down your house, but rather a workshop, specifically a woodworking shop. A wood worker may use a wood finish/stain on a finished project, then throw the dirty stain towel in a bucket, and they do this for years. What some people don't know, is that those dirty towels can combust if there is enough built up. An easy way to burn down a shop. You should either clean it off and leave it in a ziplock bag outside, or put it in a fireproof bucket.
Buried (And Burned) Alive
Not a firefighter, but my dad was station commander of 3 stations in our area with a lot of experience. And my mum was in the fire service doing health inspection things and saw lots of hazards.
A biggy was smokers- either not putting out smokes, or falling asleep. In a minute an entire room could be engulfed in flame.
Another is hoarders, it's just waiting to happen.
And then one time my brother left his laptop on the bed and it caught fire. Needless to say my dad was pissed. He then caught him again with his laptop on the bed the very next day whilst my brother was at school. Legit thought the world was going to end
A Room For The House
Not respecting your fireplace.
Half of the fires I have attended have been because the homeowner placed flammable objects too close to the wood stove.
The worst was a wood burning furnace that was in a fire resistant room which was filled with paper, plastic and clothing. Luckily the well built room prevented the loss of the house.
The Sugar War
Daughter of firefighters here.
Pop-tarts, man. There's a reason some toasters have a Pop-tart setting. Sugar has a pretty low melting point for something intended to fit in a toaster slot.
Fire In The Disco
Our most common calls come from dryers, and ovens/stovetops. Usually we get there in time to just point our water can at it, and knock it down before it does too much damage.
Clean your dryer air ducts/lint traps, and turn off the damned stove when you're done! Also a good idea to keep fire extinguishers handy. They're incredibly cheap for the life safety. I keep one next to my bed, under the passenger seat of my car, in the kitchen, and underneath the bathroom sink. Cost me less than $150 for all of them.
Hipster Fire
My wife was infusing some kind of flowers into oil. She put flowers and coconut oil in a mason jar and put that in a small pot of water on the stove to melt the coconut oil. When it was time to go pick up the kids from school, she left the house and forgot to turn off the stove.
She got a call from our neighbor a short time later telling her that there was smoke coming out of our house. The oil had gotten so hot that the jar exploded and sent hot oil all over the kitchen, catching it on fire.
The Duct, The Duct!
Not cleaning your dryer vent once a year (from interior wall to the roof or exterior wall)...
Dryer fires are I believe the #1 cause of house fires. Not cleaning the vent can and will attribute to not only a higher electric or gas bill, longer dry times, but also dryer fires.
Clean your damn dryer duct!
GiphyDown Lines
Not a firefighter but I live in Florida where we have fairly often power outages for hours or days at a time. A lot of fires here start when the power goes out while the electric stove is on. Time passes and people are in the kitchen and someone sets something down on the stove top (usually pizza boxes or similar). Eventually the power comes back on and whatever is on top of the stove catches fire.
Quality For My Life
Shoddy vape battery chargers. When I was younger I had a double 18650 battery charger that I got for like $10 on eBay. I left the batteries charging one day while I went to school and came home to my batteries half melted. Can't say what would've happened if they were on there longer.
Buy decent battery chargers.
Da Boom
Just a volunteer, but I responded to a call where a lady with a gas stove had left a BBQ lighter in the bottom drawer of her stove. Many people don't seem to realize that these are meant as warming drawers (me included) and so a little bit of heat is vented in while the stove is on. Well the lady set her stove on clean mode which gets it ridiculously hot and had this lighter blow her stove up. Her house ended up relatively fine but it could have been alot worse. Just alot of smoke and her stove is now dead.
GiphyIf I Die, Blame The Cats
I'm a nurse, but we do a fire safety drill every year. According to our instructor, the two easiest ways to cause a fire is 1) leaving your food unattended while it's heating up in the microwave, and 2) smoking in bed.
The biggest takeaway every year is no to leave our food unattended in the microwave, and to close the doors at night at home. Doors alone can directly prevent fires from extending from the source to the room in the house. They always show us this photo of a house where everything but the bedroom was burnt and covered in soot, but the bedroom was pristine because the door was closed when the fire happened.
I don't close my bedroom door when I'm sleeping cuz my cat's bowls are in the kitchen and I don't want to prevent her from getting to it. But the photo always makes me contemplative.
Tell This To Southerners
Wife of a firefighter here. My husband recently had a call where someone put pizza boxes in the oven and forgot about them. Their daughter went to make brownies and turned the oven on with the pizza boxes in the oven. They caught it before the fire got out of control but it could have easily spread to the whole house. Don't store things in your oven!
Blowtorched Out Of Proportion
- Dirty dryer vents.
- Bathroom fans. People don't have them on timers, so they run for long periods of time over years and the motor burns out and catches fire.
- Bark dust fires, usually caused by discarded cigarettes, but any spark will do. They can smolder for days, and eventually catch decks and siding on fire.
I have also seen people catch their house on fire by using a blowtorch to kill weeds and or insect nests.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
People Reveal How Their 'Something's Not Right' Gut Feeling Ended Up Saving Their Life
- Human instincts have largely been dulled by our relatively safe and cushy existence (as compared to way back when we still had to worry about predators).
Sometimes, though, trusting a gut feeling can save us from a world of hurt.
Reddit user u/cantbebothered_tk asked:
"When did your gut feeling of 'something's not right here' save you?"