Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with fire

Explosive listening?

katje — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:23:19 -0800

Would spraying a stick-on (paper) CD label with artists' fixative make the disc unsafe to play? I've illustrated the label for a kind of wintry mix CD for a friend in mechanical pencil. In my experience, these don't get too terribly smudgy, but they aren't immune to fading and a bit of scuffing. Is it completely insane to spray the paper with artists' fixative (ethanol, hydrocarbon propellants, ethyl acetate), let dry, peel off the label, affix it to a burned CD, and expect said disc to not explode or burst into flames when played?

Emergency help with a Viking funeral for a small bird.

Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:04:57 -0800

I need to build a small bonfire in Oakland,Ca. Tonight. Something campfire sized at largest. Want to be both safe and within the law. Emergency mourning. We're in the vicinity of the Parkway theater and bike mobile.

We just came home and discovered that our cats have killed the bird. We're not gonna throw her in the garbage, don't want to leave a mess for someone else to clean up.

Thanks in advance.

Where's the fire?

avocet — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 13:00:43 -0800

Seeking fire department incident response websites from anywhere in the world – updated on the fly (e.g. Toronto) or whenever they get the chance (Shropshire), it doesn't matter. Does your area's fire service do this?

Wine & Fire?

bumbleintuit — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 11:46:01 -0800

Looking for an Austin-area restaurant or bar with an outdoor firepit. A decent winelist would be swell. Short and sweet. Thanks all.

No one wants to buy a house next to a burned out property.

leahwrenn — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:08:20 -0800

How can we sell our house, when everyone is scared off by the vacant burned house next door? in May 2008, the house next door to ours had a fire which gutted the second story. It's sat vacant since then and is a teardown at this point, probably, because in addition to the damage upstairs, rain has been pouring in through the tarps on the roof, etc., in the intervening time. There's probably animals in it, too.

The house is in litigation; it's not clear who owns it (there's a lawsuit involved, possible identity theft of a will, or maybe not, very complicated). There has been very little cleanup since the fire. We talked to the township and they sent nasty letters saying come clean up the debris or we'll fine you, and there was a little cleanup, but nothing substantial---and certainly nothing major like removing the plywood and tarps, etc.

Meanwhile, we needed to move across country and have been trying to sell our nice house since this past May. We've been getting a couple three showings a week since then. No luck. Recent reports from our realtor are that people are uncomfortable (understandably) by the situation next door....and as winter approaches, people are likely to be less likely to want to buy a house.

Any ideas about what we can do? The houses in question are in Perkiomen Twp., PA. (We're currently in Alaska.) We can't lower the price much on our house as we're already basically just trying to get enough to cover the mortgage (and the loan my parents made for the downpayment on the house).

Did common people used to shave with fire?

penciltopper — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:11:25 -0800

Before the sharp steel razor became generally available, what did most people shave with? Fire seems the best choice. Right? So I'm living any time prior to the last 400 years or so.
I'm an everyday Joe/Jane, not rich enough for luxuries.
But whatever culture I'm living in mandates a shaved face/legs/head/whatever.

I've heard of bronze age razors and cutting hair with knapped volcanic glass, but it seems to me that it would be a lot easier to just take it off with a burning twig.

Not to mention less painful - I imagine a copper or obsidian razor would probably be like shaving with a carpenter's plane or a piece of broken glass.

And I suppose that the nobility got up to all kinds of fancy things; but I'm more interested in the common person than some kingling who had a team of slaves responsible for plucking each individual hair.

What does the hive mind know about popular deplilatory habits of the previous couple of millennia?

Liability for fire in the kitchen

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:18:09 -0800

Less than a year ago, my SO left a pan on the stove and the rental house burned. Now, the owner's insurance company wants her to pay. The renter's insurance (same company as owner's insurance company) lapsed less than a week before the fire through a mix-up/misunderstanding. I'm thinking that isn't a significant point since that policy only have covered SO's personal contents, right?

Insurance company has made two offers ($10,000 at first; now $5,000) for SO to pay them part of the money paid to the owner. If SO does not accept within 30 days, the subrogation unit will refer it to the legal department to recover the full amount ($68,000).

I know you are not SO's lawyer, but what is a reasonable expectation for the end result? Does SO's carelessness necessarily mean negligence? Only a court can determine that?

SO does not have the money to hire a lawyer, but has a consultation appointment this week. What suggestions do you have? How should SO proceed?

This is definitely not the first time this has happened, hive mind, but it is SO's first (and hopefully last) time and SO is shocked and scared.

Outside Air Filter

ulotrichous — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:07:52 -0800

We want to add a wood stove to my wife's studio, currently under construction. Is outside combustion air a must or a maybe? The studio is framed and roofed, and it's on a 2nd story above the garage. The place where we'd like the wood stove to go is above the garage, so we could do a vent through the floor and duct it to the outside.

I've read differing opinions as to whether outside combustion air is a good idea or not. I understand if the house is tight, it can draw exhaust down the water heater flue or in through bathroom fans, etc, but there won't be any other exhausts to back draft in the building. It's not super tightly-sealed but it is new construction; however there are french doors which are always going to let some air in, ventilated soffit, etc.

One thing I read said that outside combustion air is more efficient because your house becomes positively pressurized, which sucks the warm air towards the envelope of the house (and out?) which distributes the heat better in the space for greater efficiency.

But I also read this near-rant on the myth of outside air but it's very axe-grindy and seems like it comes from a guy who used to sell wood stoves that didn't offer outside air options... but it makes some good points.

My builder is a little worried about additional fire code requirements for the garage ceiling if the outside air vent comes through there, and it's always possible that the outside air could be added later, but I don't want the kit to become unavailable, or have to redo the ceiling as part of it, etc.

The stove is a Drolet Eldorado. It's Canadian, so you know it's good. The studio is about 600sf with a 200 sf office below in the back that I am calling "geekland".

So, do you have experience with outside air supplies for wood stoves? Do you think we should do this now, or maybe plan to do it later, or not worry about it?

Help me warm the house up!

dance — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:38:26 -0800

I have a two part question about fires and making firewood. The two parts are related so I assume this is fine...
1) I have just acquired my first personal chainsaw, for use in the copse behind my house cutting down smaller trees to make firewood. Previously when I've felled trees, I've had use of a tractor to winch out the log OR an abundance of clear space around the fallen tree to roll it with either my boot or a lever. In my own backyard I have neither tractor nor space - the fallen tree cannot be rolled by the persuasive power of my boot. I can't cut the log into firewood in situ either because my saw would be dulled by sawing into the ground. Any tips from those in a similar predicament?

2) The stove in the house is unlike any stove I've dealt with before! It is really difficult to get wood to 'catch', and doesn't seem to warm nicely. I'm using the trick of leaving the door ajar whilst the wood is just beginning to burn, but still, when it seems to have caught flame if I close the door with the vent on full open, it's fairly often that the fire will die out. In addition the stove seems to have a tendency to let smoke into the room if one opens the door. I realise that this sounds like a blocked chimney but the previous occupant who used the stove often to good effect mentioned nothing. I have cleaned the ash out of the bottom of the stove and used wood from different areas of the woodpile. I still wonder if the wood might be a bit damp but can't really believe that because it's the same woodpile the previous occupant took from. Any thoughts? Should I just try wood from a petrol station to see if it's the wood at fault? How do I know if the chimney is blocked? Smoke plumes merrily out on the few occasions a good fire is going in the stove...

Thanks for any and all help.

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown Redux

Xurando — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:13:01 -0800

Vermont Mystery Filter: Help me prove it was arson. We have lived in our house in rural Vermont for over 20 years. A mile up the road from our house is a piece of property by a stream. When we first moved in, the property had two buildings on it. A cabin and a small house. About 18 years ago the cabin burnt down and the owners refurbished the house and made it bigger. 3 years later the house burned down. The owners sold the property to someone who built another house in a different location on the property across the stream and up a hill. It was a modern expensive house. The owners became underwater with the mortgage and were looking to sell. Four years ago they were both at work and came home to find the house was on fire and a total loss. The daughter of a couple down the road bought the property and over time has rebuilt the house on the foundation. The $300,000 figure listed in the article is low. Friday my wife was driving home and the police stopped her and said the house was on fire and was again a total loss. The officer said the property was "cursed".

I don't believe in curses. This has to be arson. All four fires happened when no one was home. Statistically this seems impossible. The police and fire marshall seem disinclined to do anything about it. I want to prove someone caused this. I have a suspect. Any ideas about where to start? I have no background in forensics. I've thought about going to local newspaper or asking my own insurance agent for advice. It's pretty creepy.

Psychological Interview Preperation

brevator — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:48:01 -0800

Tomorrow I have to take psychological testing for a firefighter job. If anyone has been through anything similar I'd appreciate any advice. The first part of is a written test. I'm fairly sure it will be the MMPI-2 and I'm not too worried about that. The second part is an interview with a psychologist. I know some of the questions can be pretty simple like "How is your relationship with your mother?" But, I've also heard that they try some sneaky tricks during the interview. For example they might say something like "well you didn't do very well on the IQ portion of the test," to get a reaction from you. Of course there is no IQ portion. Or they might insist that you answered a question one way when in fact you didn't, to see if you'll stand your ground. The craziest thing I heard is that one psychologist excused himself for a moment, snuck up behind the test taker and screamed a racial epithet.
Is there any way to prepare for something like this? Any advice, resources or personal experiences are greatly appreciated.

How to save our skillets

specialagentwebb — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:36:51 -0800

Our cast iron skillets caught fire. Can they ever be used again? We have 2 cast iron skillets, and in the process of re-seasoning them after a washing mishap, the oil in them caught fire. We put out the flames with an A,B,C dry chemical fire extinguisher, then put the pans outside to cool down (and not smoke up the house any more).

The chemical extinguisher mixed with the oil, and it seems like it's not coming off of the skillets.

What's the best route to take from here. Can the skillets be saved? If so, what's the best way to go about cleaning them?

Costume on Fire

roomthreeseventeen — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:10:34 -0800

Bizarre question. Where would I get a fabric tested for flammability in NYC on a Saturday? Asking for a friend, I assume it's for a theater production going up tomorrow night!

Kids floating outside the kitchen window

Tandem Affinity — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:41:29 -0800

how to empty the fire escape as quickly as possible in the event of NOT a fire Our new place is on the top floor and has a pretty substantial fire escape that reaches all the way from the ground floor to our kitchen window. It seems to be very attractive to the neighborhood kids. Unlike fire escapes I'm used to, which require the person coming down to lower a ladder for the last story, this escape is a complete stairway so it's very easy for the kids to climb up and down. Which they do. All day long. Since it's a shaky wrought iron stairway, that's incredibly noisy, and it's a little disturbing to have them show up at the kitchen window when we live up so high. Speaking to them sternly about getting down worked a few times ("The fire escape is not a good place to play. You could fall. You're disturbing our dinner.") worked the first few times. Now, we get retorts of, 'good thing we don't care. good thing you don't know our names. good thing you don't know where we live.'

It's clearly prohibited to be on the fire escape in our lease (there's actually a spelled-out fine for being on there without a fire danger), so of course I'll be complaining to the landlord, but I don't have a lot of hope in them getting results. I suspect these are just neighborhood kids who don't even live in the complex. Any tips?

On a tangent to this same issue, the whole matter has pointed out to me how easy it is for *anyone* to climb up those stairs to our window. Unlike our deadbolted front door with a chain, which now seems silly in light of this, the kitchen window is large and easy to open even when locked with its inconsequential clips. I didn't really worry about window locks since we live so high up, but what kind of locks would people in the suburbs have on the ground floor?

Does she not want to go home?

tylerfulltilt — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:32:52 -0800

[Spoilers for Song of Ice and Fire books] Why is that Arya Stark... In a clash of kings, When Arya is at harrenhall and Roose Bolton takes over the Place from Vargo Hoat, why doesn't Arya reveal herself to him and ask him to take her home? She couldn't have known that Roose was gonna betray her brother. She should have known that Roose was her brother's man, right?

This has been bugging me

is it just sad?

chicago2penn — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:36:55 -0800

2-Part question: 1) Why did my wok catch fire? 2) Why did it turn blue? I was cooking fish last night using a stainless steel wok.

it was on the eye of the stove heating up, and i let it stay for a little while longer than i had planned, because i was occupied preparing the stuff to go in the wok.

i finished prep, and poured less than a tablespoon of canola oil into it, which immediately started to boil. i turned around, and then looked back, and the oil had caught fire, with a bright orange flame about 2 feet tall (way cool!!!).

after i put it out, i poured a bit of water into it to cool it off (free wok, so i didn't really care about ruining it, just wanted to get it off the stove), and let it cool for a while.

i looked at it this morning, and the whole bottom of the wok is blue (also, way cool!!!).

why did all this happen? i thought the smoke point of canola oil is much hotter than my electric stove could bring anything.

How do I create soot without burning a building down?

ieatwords — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:59:27 -0800

I want to add soot as an element to one of my paintings. How do I create soot? Obviously, I have to burn something...but what? It should be dark like charcoal and fine enough to spread over a large area. I'm not looking for big chunks. Ideally, it would be something that I burn and hold over the canvas as it falls into the desired locations. I would prefer something that I could control as it is burning and rather it not be toxic enough to knock me out. Any ideas?

Is it possible to teach Firefox spell check to correct unusual words?

antisocialiting — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:23:33 -0800

I type the word iphone a lot knowing It should be spelled iPhone but I'm lazy and would rather just right click it and correct it. I know I can right click it and add it to the dictionary but what I want it to do is give iPhone with the capital P as a suggestion. I have already added iPhone to the dictionary but dont want to add iphone because its the wrong spelling. My friend complains about the same problem when it comes to Facebook he spells it lowercase and wants spellchecker to give him the option of spelling it with the capitalized F. Just as it would if he typed amsterdam and it would suggest Amsterdam with the capitalized A. Is this possible to fix? Thanxs in advance.

Yell thou ye might, I shant desist from makin' bacon!

foooooogasm — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:52:03 -0800

SmokeDetectorFilter: When my smoke detectors go off and I press their happy buttons, why don't they shush? How do I make them shush? You know the drill: Bacon for breakfast, smoke, fire alarm goes off, you manically run around the apartment, trying anything to turn it off, etc.

I've seen:

1. battery powered fire alarms. You could just remove the battery (after you knock it off the ceiling with a broom handle) and they would shush.

2. more recent ones, connected directly to the building's electrical system (not just battery powered; when removed from the ceiling, you see electric wires connected to (what I assume is) the building's electrical system via an electrical relay thingie). These you could shush by killing the main power switch in the switch box.

The ones in my loft (brand new building) are 2., but even worse. Not only are they connected to the electrical system, but to the building's main fire alarm system. If you can't shush them in 30 seconds (and I can't!), they trigger the main alarm system in the entire building.

That's a problem, not only for me (who's done it once), but for a lot of people living here. I've been here for 2 months and have had to evacuate 5 times so far (~20 minutes each time). These are the false alarms, btw, that send out the fire department.

Possibly worse is the "fire alarm that cried wolf" effect: I don't believe there's a fire when the fire alarm goes off anymore. I just plug my ears with foam ear plugs and walk out onto my balcony to check for smoke.

Why doesn't the button turn the alarm off? Is it just a testing button? Am I supposed to press and hold?

Ideas on how to turn them off?

They're the usual white "oversized hockey puck" smoke detectors.

I can't find documentation on the model, otherwise I'd just RTFM.

The super here is clueless.

Help!

I want bacon!

Where can I find this old Flash animation with hopping bunnies and the head of Margaret Thatcher?

chrismear — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:10:47 -0800

Does anyone remember and know where I can find an old Flash animation that I saw on the internet years ago, which featured hopping bunnies, the floating head of Margaret Thatcher, and a jaunty song containing the word 'ja!'? Other features that I remember from this animation:

the head of Margaret Thatcher shot laser beams from her eyes;
there was a bit in the middle with, I think, valkyrie-type naked women dancing in a cancan style;
the opening lyrics of the song were something like (phonetically), "Oppan? Ja. Poppan? Ja!"; and
I think there were buildings on fire in the background.

I would like to see it again for nostalgia's sake, and also to confirm that this did actually exist and I'm not just going very very mad and inventing this horrible scene in my head from whole cloth.

I have tried searching for these terms on Google, but have had, perhaps understandably, little success.

Pan catching on fire [kitchen]

red_rika — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:36:02 -0800

When will the pan catch on fire? (kitchen) I was just watching hell's kitchen and in one of the episode, a chef was cooking meat in a pan and the pan caught on fire.

So i am just wondering when or how will the pan catch fire in case I will be cooking in the future, I could avoid the flames.

Can unplugged irons cause fires?

tomargue — Sat, 16 May 2009 20:35:13 -0800

Can unplugged irons cause fires? One of my housemates (Housemate A) observed that my other housemate (Housemate B) put the clothes iron back into the cupboard without letting it cool down. How dangerous is this? The iron rests upright on a wooden shelf, in a confined space. Lets say that immediately after ironing his clothes, Housemate B puts the iron on the shelf, and unknowingly knocks the iron over while closing the cupboard door. If the iron falls face down on to the wooden shelf, how much of a fire risk is this? Assume, for arguments sake, that it's a standard iron that was used on the highest setting (but is unplugged when put in the cupboard).

Burned down building, rising health concerns.

fontophilic — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:57:07 -0800

Asbestos, mold and spores! Oh my! Slightly afraid of the burned down building next to me. Should I be? Details, and a heartwarming metafilter-related story inside. We live in a multi building apartment complex. About a month ago, one of the buildings in our complex burned down. No injuries, no other buildings caught, but a whole lot of people lost everything.

We really like our apartment for many reasons, and weren't planing on moving. The burned down building, though very unattractive, isn't in view of our windows, and we don't see it all that often. Doesn't impact our day much. A few weeks ago, big "Danger Asbestos" signs went up around the building. Now, looking into the building, you can see big nasty, Katrina-style, black mold on all the drywall.

I'm asthmatic, and pretty sensitive to allergens. I know you are (probably) not a doctor, but perhaps someone with some environmental science background can tell me, how dangerous is it to live next to a building like this? I'm not about to go jump inside it and play with some toxic mold, but could just living in proximity to this building affect my health? Also, how likely is it that a building built in the late 70's would have asbestos?

Story time.

The BF and I moved to Austin recently, and we've been going to MetaFilter meet ups, like the most excellent white elephant holiday gift exchange, where I "won" a very unique frog shaped teapot. . Our apartment is mostly filled with what fit in the back of two cars, and impersonal Ikea furniture, so The Frog was very welcomed. The night of the fire, we had somehow slept through (no exaggeration) 10 full ladder trucks pulling into our parking lot. We were awoken by a police officer banging on our door-- "Its not your building. Yet." Autopilot kicked on; threw on some clothes, grabbed laptops and insurance papers, cell phones and wallets. In an instant, my boyfriend and I were standing in the entryway, looked at each other and said, "OK. Everything else can burn." He grabs the teapot and says, "At least we'll have the frog", and with that we left.

Metafilter has given us the ultimate conversation piece.

Meaning of Quote

GhislainTwo — Sat, 02 May 2009 10:28:20 -0800

What is the meaning of the Benjamin Franklin quote: "The proof of gold is fire; the proof of woman, gold; the proof of man, a woman."

Help a friend find a book she loved as younger person.

Syntoad — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:38:42 -0800

Trying to find a friend find a book she remembers reading as a child, fantasy genre, wizards, kids with magic, and it was a trillogy! Better description (kinda) inside Ok, so I'm too lazy to retype it all, so I'm just cutting and pasting my chat history where she is describing the book so please excuse the scatterbrainedness. She remembers having the book in middle school so it's at least 90's old, but probably pre 80's.

============
OKAY
this book
its about a brother and sister
it a sort of fantasy world, knights, magic, temptresses, oceans, sea, sacrfice
anyways
the brother has an affinity with fire, and the girl has an affinity for dream seeing or something to that effect
anyways they dont know this in the beginning
like because they are orphaned i think they get shipped off across the sea?
and on board the ship, the brother meets this white/silver haired lady who is the main evil person(from what i recall)
and she convinces him to lose his virginity to her and thus became her slave
and then the sister, like.. either figures out what is happening or she gets in trouble?
and there is this storm
and the brother and sister wash ashore this island
where they meet this grizzled old mage
after they explore the island
like they find him sitting in a meadow on a stump
and he speaks to the sister in her mind
and the brother gets jealous that he doesnt have the ability to speak mind to mind
and gets across the notion that he wants the power to protect himself and his sister
and like. the mage begins to teach them
but halfway through the brother's training the brother is like "DUDE I got this I"M SO AWESOME"
well the brother is like "Yeah I can control my powers im amazing and soooo powerful!"
and he leaves the island to go to the white haired lady
and becomes evil
the series ends with him catching himself on fire and destroying this forest and himself in order to destroy and evil army and save the kingdom from descrutction
but the sister always has hope in him and keeps trying to break through the evil the temptress bespelled him into
but the old dude was very important to the story, and i think he died when he finished training the sister
and she ends up i think advising the king? or something like that
i think the brother and sister's uncle may have tried to sell them as slaves and that may have been why they were on the boat at sea
but there was a lightning storm and it threw them off the boat maybe