Hi, it's Craig, reporting from Local Grocery.
On Friday night I was doing the usual pre-closing routine in the bakery, sweeping up crumbs, washing out baking trays, making sure no one was locked in the freezer, when suddenly the night got more lively.
One of my colleagues working in deli opened their oven to have flames shoot out of it and set some surrounding materials on fire.
In a large store this occasionally happens, and we're trained for it, so I didn't panic. In fact, the only thing that happened in my department was a lady came over and asked if I could get her 1/2 pound of honey-baked turkey since the deli staff seemed kind of busy (no, I can't).
Then the deli manager suddenly yelled to me "I need your fire extinguisher!"
I grabbed it off the decorating table and ran it over to him. He put out the fire at the same time that the deli's sprinklers switched on, soaking all of us and the lady yelling about honey-baked turkey.
Since the bakery was quiet I helped them mop up while somebody dealt with the turkey lady (who was now also upset over her unexpected participation in wet-floral-print-polyester-blouse night). I was back to boxing up unsold donuts for the homeless shelter pick-up when the deli manager came over.
Deli guy: "Thank you, we really needed that, we couldn't get to ours. I've put in an order for a new one for bakery, and it will be here tomorrow."
Craig: "Thank you. Where is your fire extinguisher?"
Deli guy: "We keep it on the wall behind the oven."
19 comments:
(big grin) Yup .
Where do you keep your office one, Dr Grumpy?
Thank goodness you're safe Craig, and that the worse that happened is that Grumpyville's unemployed population has increased by two.
Ye gods & little fishes!!! What a horrible place to keep the extinguisher!
Bless you for staying cool, Craig ~ good job!
Keeping the fire extinguisher right where you're likely to need it. Sounds like a brilliant idea...(until you need it). Good job, Craig!
1. Well written (again).
2. Manager might be scratching his head if he has any sense.
3. Did you happen to notice if the manager knew how to operate the extinguisher on the VERY first try, and if he actually knew how to put out the fire properly? Sounds like he had a relatively contained fire and could get away with bumblefingers. Might not be so easy next time.
4. Sounds like you kept your head. Good on ya!
(Don McCollor)...My lab/office as a chem graduate student had a 10' long aisle 4'wide between lab benches and hood. An astute prof who had designed the labs placed the fire extinguisher at the far end. Close to the door you could get out and find another one. At the far end, you used it to get to the door...
Shared as "Hello, OSHA?"
@HeroHog, OSHA probably approved that placement.
(Don McCollor)...Extinguishers have to be checked/recharged regularly (used or not). Later where I worked, a thrifty (and good) safety officer would collect the old ones before recharging. Then ask the local FD (who were happy to come to instruct) who came with a large pan of diesel fuel that they lit off so each of us could actually use an extinguisher to put out a fire...
I am liking the grocery store more than the Dr Office stories. More raw sexuality, I.e. crotchless pants bodice ripper, wet blouses , damsel in distress prescription drug intrigue, more action, danger and excitement
Yeah, me too.
If we hadn’t wasted our time in medical school, we too could have an exciting career in the bakery or deli.
Good thinking, Craig. You deserve a raise. Does this make you more excited about going back to school?
Whoever laid out the bakery needs safety re-training along with the bakery staff.
Good work, C.
Craig, good moves. Did anyone in the store get any instruction on how to use the extinguishers? I know point the stuff at the base of the flames, but that's one of the few memories I retain from grade school and the fire safety month demonstrations. (I also recall a pumper truck going into a flame pit, but that is another story.)
(from one chemist to another)...my company did the same thing. Approaching end date extinguishers and fire training. Got to use all kinds- from the horrid soda-water and purpleK mess makers to type D (and yes, we lit off a metal fire for that one AND got to see why you do NOT use other types on it) to the stunning efficacy of Halon. We used half drums with waste solvent, mostly, in the parking lot. We filled aerosols, so Halon was all over the place. Just magic. One whoof and done. I still keep Halon extinguishers in the house.
My favorite lab fire story is from grad school, where I was running a big (really, really big) reaction with CS2 as solvent. Which kept blowing out the not-very-good condenser and igniting from the steam line (well known problem). I just hit it with a CO2 extinguisher every time it flashed. Cooled the pot down and ended the fire. This was all in a hood. Sort of. After I'd gotten well started on the second extinguisher, maybe eight or ten ignitions in, the professor looked up and yelled from across the hall to see if everything was OK. I said yes, he went back to writing a lecture, and I got a pretty good yield of the product I was making. Friedel-Crafts acylation with anhydrous aluminum chloride, for anyone who cares.
That was nearly 60 years ago. I cannot imagine the hysteria that would result today. Then- hell, I was competent and said I was on top of it. Nobody even blinked. Didn't even come up at the weekly lab meeting.
Same year, the boron chemistry gang down the hall disposed of all their waste boranes by pouring them down the side of the building. Ten stories up. At night. (very pretty green flames)
Damn, I miss those days.
I have to wonder about Grumpyville fire department. Where I live, a quasi volunteer fire department conducts business inspections at least once a year. A competent inspector would have insisted the fire extinguisher be moved immediately, and come back in a specific time frame to verify it had been moved to the recommended location. I know as I was a former business owner and was inspected every 6 months.
(Don McCollor) [to Anonymous Chemist)...A more exciting was a less astute fellow graduate student (organic chemistry, nicknamed "buckets" because of the quantities of chemicals that he used. Now picture a (not fire rated) fiberglass hood lined with solvent and chemical bottles along the back and both side, another 20 liters of assorted solvent stored on the floor under the hood, and an O2 tank strapped to the hood. He was trying to make lithium pellets by melting Li metal in mineral oil, then cooling it while aggressively stirring. Mechanical stirrer broke the flask. Mineral oil ignited from the heating mantle. Ignited the Li. Whole mess burned right through the heating mantle onto the hood bench. He went through a half dozen CO2 extinguishers (Li burns in CO2) to no effect, but managed to cool the other chemicals so they did not contribute. Finally got it out with a bucket of sand. The hood looked like Apollo 1 after the fire. One (very well sealed) bottle of dimethyl ether had got hot enough to bulge part of the glass. He was the star of a long post-mortem by the department Safety Committee.
Could be worse.
Could have been old lady wet t-shirt night.
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