I am the Fire Starter.
Couple of things about yesterday.
As I approached the kitchen , I was relieved to see, I 'd be able to make it, past the flames, to the back door, where a relatively short length of hose, was already attached to an outside tap.
Turned it on and ran the pipe through my hands to find the end, as I returned to the kitchen.
I stood in front of the inferno and watched the water limply fall out of the pipe onto my shoes.
Quickly shuffled back to the tap, turned it up and shuffled in again.
This time, I found I'd actually turned it off!
Third time was the charm and after a minute or two all was under control.
Later that day......
Electrician- "Must have been a hell of a lot of heat in that fire, when did it happen?"
Me- " Couple of hours ago."
Electrician- "Really, I can't believe how calm you are, most people would be fraught."
Me- "Well, I'm a steel worker, I've seen loads of unwanted fires in my time."
As I approached the kitchen , I was relieved to see, I 'd be able to make it, past the flames, to the back door, where a relatively short length of hose, was already attached to an outside tap.
Turned it on and ran the pipe through my hands to find the end, as I returned to the kitchen.
I stood in front of the inferno and watched the water limply fall out of the pipe onto my shoes.
Quickly shuffled back to the tap, turned it up and shuffled in again.
This time, I found I'd actually turned it off!
Third time was the charm and after a minute or two all was under control.
Later that day......
Electrician- "Must have been a hell of a lot of heat in that fire, when did it happen?"
Me- " Couple of hours ago."
Electrician- "Really, I can't believe how calm you are, most people would be fraught."
Me- "Well, I'm a steel worker, I've seen loads of unwanted fires in my time."
posted by Tickersoid at 10:36 AM
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35 Comments:
Is it the fact that you're a steel worker, or that you're clearly one of the most pragmatic people on the planet?
Oh, and - yay! First!
I think I was always pragmatic but being a steel worker makes you more so. We see cockups and disasters, which cost thousands (almost daily) and sometimes millions of pounds to sort out.
I've never worked in steel (although I did a Young Enterprise group that was based in a steel factory - Ravenscraig), but being a big old poof, cockups are something that I've seen a lot of. :)
Ravenscraig eh. The guy who fixed my 'puter comes from there.
Good grief! What did you sent on fire in the first place??
TB works in one of those "it's all OK because we haven't actually killed anyone this week" type manufacturing environments too. Although he was rather less cool when his new 4 million quid bit of kit didn't work and his liquidated damages were £10k an hour!
Lippy- I added an edit to the end of my last post, which explains all. You came in before it.
Found out we actually did kill someone a couple of days ago. In Port Talbot. Fell into some hot slag I think. Which would be a feed like were it not so tragic.
Aw horrible, I'm sorry to hear that.
TB's lot had a terrible year last year - one decapitation by centrifuge, one boiled by steam flowing back through a boiler and one run over by a loading shovel.
Unsurprisingly you can't get on site without a health and safety briefing these days.
And oh shit about the laundry basket!
Hope you like decorating.....
That should have been 'feed line' not 'feed like'.
Health and safety do make a big difference. However, I'm a bit annoyed they tried ( half heartedly ) to stop us going into the machinery by covering them in safety guards, instead of curing the technical problem that caused us to go there in the first place. Now when we go in, we're trapped with now where to jump if it activates.
Btw everyone
There is a good story over at lippy's place which deserves a wider audience.
It's always struck me as strange that they make such a song and dance about what heros astronauts are, putting their lives in Actual Danger™ when they could have been Really Killed™.
In reality, astronauts knows that they are in high risk profession, and god knows they get paid accordingly. Not so the humble worker in heavy industry.
I know I wouldn't have been calm...some of my greatest fears--fire, knives and wire clothes hangers!
qenny- Well said.
Xtasy- Wire clothes hangers? In a land where every psycho has a gun?
Mind you when my kids were young, it was wire hangers, table corners, weedkiller, flyspray........
Good lord, you really did burn down your kitchen! And you had time to comment on Phlegmfatale's post in the middle of it all. Well done.
Lawks! I'm seventeenth and beaten Fuckkit. Where is that lazy young whippersnapper?
Barbara, blogging takes a priority in my life which is higher than it is prudent.
Fuck the uniforms: I love a man with balls of steel.
I'm not really one of natures heros, just practical and laid back like Qenny says.
How can you stay so calm? I would have been completely pathetic in that kind of situation. Mr T would have had to come to my rescue .... yet again.
Now there was me thinking you'd be all Lara Croft, extinguishing it in seconds whilst on the 'phone to the insurance company.
I like fire too.
It burns things.
you are very impressive tickers :-) I can envision you whipping up dinner with one hand, dousing fires with the other, spinning to throw a knife at an attacking ninja, and stooping to pet the poodles all at one go!!
btw, I've tried to reply to your mail message a couple of time but keep getting failure notice??
thanks for the pics of HBC. She really is quite lovely.
The fright of wire clothes hangers comes from watching 'Mommy Dearest' as a kid....and there has always been this fear that the pointed end would poke me in the eye!
IDV; I was experimenting with that "life" thing Tickers mentioned before but it just made me tired so I don't think I'll bother again.
Nerves of Steel[worker]. Most impressive. I would have screamed and watched my place burn down.
Sid- I should visit you more, I usually just go down my blog roll, so i've put a link in to remind me. When's the next bbq?
Kyah- That made me laugh. I'm really bad at multi tasking. I found this out during my first menage a trois. I can be reached on stuart.young@ntlworld.com
xtasy- Yes you're right, hangers can
be leathal.
Fuckkit- My surrogate, virtual daughter, you have to do what works for you. Bless you. have fun in Oz. It's a beautifull country.
Snooze- It's really not that impressive. I've just seen it all before. After all, If I wasn't such a muppet, I wouldn't have set fire to the kitchen in the first place. Learn by your mistakes. Better still learn by others mistakes.
1) I'm putting a second fire alarm in the kitchen.
2) I will never put anything flamable on the hob even if I know It's cold.
Now IDV, this is what I call early.
Ouch, my brain hurts.
What do steel workers do? Do you make jewellry??
Traci- Welcome. I don't need to inform the council as I'm fortunate enough not to be living in speed hump land.
Your mum sounds like a bit of a wag.
Pixie- Welcome also. I wish we did, unfortunately we have to do all sorts of butch stuff that involes a lot of heat and swetting. Making steel sort of things actually.
ooh, but big industrial steel is the jewelry of the gods - talk about your job some more, tick - if you're trying to turn me on, it's working. Sweaty men and heavy lifting. *cackle*
oh, and I'll want you to stand by the grill at my next barbecue, in case it gets out of hand
If it gets out of hand, it'll probably be because I'm standing next to it.
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