Man sets carpet on fire with static electricity

Posted on Categories Uncategorized

If you are going for a job interview, it’s probably best to not set the place on fire. I’m just sayin’.

Here is an excerpt from BBC News.

An Australian man built up so much static electricity in his clothes as he walked that he burned carpets, melted plastic and sparked a mass evacuation.

Frank Clewer, of the western Victorian city of Warrnambool, was wearing a synthetic nylon jacket and a woollen shirt when he went for a job interview.

As he walked into the building, the carpet ignited from the 40,000 volts of static electricity that had built up.

“It sounded almost like a firecracker or something like that,” he said.

“Within about five minutes, the carpet started to erupt,” he told Australian radio.

Considerable current

Perplexed firemen evacuated the building and cut its electricity supply, thinking the burns could have been caused by a power surge.

“There were several scorch marks in the carpet, and we could hear a cracking noise – a bit like a whip – both inside and outside the building,” said fire official Henry Barton.

Mr Clewer said that after leaving the building, he scorched a piece of plastic in his car.

His clothes were measured by firemen as carrying an electrical charge of 40,000 volts, the Reuters news agency quoted Mr Barton as saying.

The fire official added that the charge was close to being high enough to cause the items to spontaneously combust.

“I’ve been firefighting for over 35 years and I’ve never come across anything like this,” he said.

The story does not say if Mr. Clewer got the job.

Thanks Tom

Excellent video of Louisiana fire in southern California

I ran across this video on YouTube that was shot on the Louisiana fire in June of 2002 in Cajon Pass in southern California. Some wildland firefighters got into a pretty tense situation, and the news photographers were right in the middle of it.

HERE is a link to the video on YouTube.

Russian air tanker makes demonstration drop at Santa Maria

The Russian-made Be-200 air tanker made a demonstration drop at Santa Maria, California yesterday. The ship dropped 3,000 gallons of water in a field near the airport and also performed a series of maneuvers. As Wildfire Today reported earlier, the aircraft is on a world tour in a marketing effort. A company in Santa Maria hopes to buy 10 of them which will be leased to U.S. air tanker operators.

If anyone has any videos or photos of the demonstration, please let us know. Here is a photo taken last weekend during a static public viewing.

BE-200 air tanker at Santa Maria, California
BE-200 air tanker at Santa Maria, California. Photo courtesy of Michael Lynn.

Ohio man dies while burning brush pile

A man in Darke County, Ohio died while attempting to burn a pile of brush on Tuesday, April 13. Investigators believe he was using an accelerant to ignite the pile and accidently set his clothing on fire. He fell into a nearby corn field, setting it on fire, eventually burning 20 acres.

A Sheriff’s department spokesman said they believe they know the identity of the man, but had not released it as of Wednesday morning.

The 1985 Pine Barrens fire

On Friday, April 19, 1985, the Pine Barrens of New Jersey were dry. The fire lookout at Cedar Bridge recorded an 18 mph wind and a humidity of 24 percent at 10 a.m.; 58 minutes later he spotted a smoke. Here is an excerpt from an article at the Sentinel about the fire that followed.

…McPherson, now 76, and Talnagi both responded to the firehouse, each manning a famed HFD “Yellowbird” — a four-wheel-drive, military surplus Jeep-like vehicle that was painted yellow and used to fight wildfires.

Driving his Yellowbird, McPherson was accompanied by firefighters Ron “Doc” Wilson and Steve Spack. Kasubinski recalled the McPherson Yellowbird “roaring in” along Old Forge Road.

“They said, ‘We’re not going to let your house burn,’ ” Kasubinski said.

On the other Yellowbird, Talnagi recalled, he and three other firefighters “went to the head of the fire to try to cut it off. However, the wind was pushing the fire very fast.

“I remember driving into the woods, a hundred yards or more in front,” Talnagi said. “As we drove in, we realized the fire was moving faster than anticipated and [we] had to get out and back to the road.”

As the Talnagi Yellowbird retreated, the fire blazed across what had been its path.

The McPherson Yellowbird took a sand road into Palumbo’s Acres.

“We pushed this one tree down [with the Yellowbird], the radiator hose broke, sprayed water all over the engine, drowned it out,” McPherson said. “We radioed for help and nobody knew where we were.”

McPherson, Wilson and Spack wet the area down with the water they had. With the fire approaching, they did the common-sense thing in a wildfire: get to already burned ground.

Despite the fire being into the treetops, they found a spot that was low enough to jump, thanks to the Applegarth Fire Company having been in the area and wetting it down, McPherson said.

As for the McPherson Yellowbird, the fire “destroyed the truck, burned the tires off, warped the frame,” he said.

“The main problem was the lack of water, so pumpers with large tanks and tanker trucks were called in to supply us with water,” Talnagi said.

The fire burned 700 acres and was controlled on April 20. Thanks to the good work of firefighters, a few homes were slightly damaged, but none were destroyed.