@MG McAnick The bobtail truck those guys were siphoning from was a gas rig. With the way things work anymore it wouldn’t have surprised me if they had attempted to sue the farmer for making gasoline theft way too easy by leaving an unattended saddle tank ripe for the picking.
The legal system drug this out for a few years and both got suspended sentences even after multiple priors. One of them did get sent to prison a year or so later after committing a few felonies (repeated domestic violence by strangulation, repeated burglary, etc) but is now out.
It never ceases to amaze me that someone could fire up a lighter or match and stick it anywhere near gasoline and not give any thought at all to what could happen.
I dont know why they consider these new"plastic wonders" so safe.I usually end up dousing the mower or whatever I try to refuel,gas everywhere. @OK,we lost a nice shop one time ,by a neighbors kid trying to pour gassy oil in a box stove with the top slid back and a fire already ,kindled there in.
Sometimes I think in an effort to make things safer, we introduce a safety hazard for the person not used to equipment that doesn’t have safety features. I received a telephone call from my son 20 years ago and was upset over an incident with a gas stove in a church. My son was a college student at the time and working with a youth group. He was preparing a spaghetti supper. He first put on a kettle of water and turned on the burner under the kettle. He then turned on the valve for the oven. He then turned on a burner to begin preparing the sauce. There was a sudden whoosh as the stove caught fire. He turned off the stove, made everyone leave the building and called the fire dept. By the time the fire dept arrived, the fire was out with.no damage done. However, the fire Dept. red tagged the stove meaning that it wasn’t to be used. My son started to argue with the fire captain and said that he didn’t realize that the oven was not self lighting. However, the minister told him to be quiet. When the fire dept left, the minister said he had been looking for a good reason to get rid of that stove for a long time. When I told my colleagues who are my age, they didn’t remember having to light the oven–they all assumed gas stoves had pilot lights for the oven as well as the burners. I remember having a gas stove growing up and having to manually light the oven. My son felt so bad about what had happened that he purchased a used range at a sale and I helped him install it. That replacement stove was electric.
Wow; 30 bucks for a 3 pack. I keep some kitchen matches around here for use when burning off tree limbs and so on as I got tired of putzing around with those erratic candle lighters.
I did notice when I bought those matches a year or two ago that they were somewhat hard to find so I guess they’re going the way of the dinosaurs also.
I have a couple of boxes of Kitchen Matches that were poured full of parrafin to water proof them. They were carried in my emergency kit on a boat and sent with the boys when camping with the scouts 30 years ago. Breaking off several made starting a fire much easier. I haven’t seen the matches in a store in many years.
ok4450: Not only did the gas, not the can explode. The Father tried to start a fire by pouring gasoline on the flame. Doesn’t a flame suggest a fire was already started?
Yeah I remember them and you used to be able to light them on your zipper. Then they decided to make them safer so you had to find the box in order to light them. I’m sure it was the federal match safety agency that pushed for the change after exhausting other things to think about that day.
We used to paint the ends with fingernail polish to waterproof them. Now I just carry a lighter. You still need those things for lighting pilot lights on water heaters etc. though and they are available yet. Or you can get the long variety for lighting wood fire places.
irlandes: Mexico is not the only country with those types of hazards. The typical U.S. tourist expects the “idiot proofing” to exist worldwide. If they are badly injured they could experience another surprise. I missed a highway exit and was trapped in evening Can’cun traffic. An ambulance about 5 blocks behind me had lights and siren on. No one moved over to let it through. After about 15 minutes the lights and siren were turned off. That is usually not a sign of good news.
“Yeah I remember them and you used to be able to light them on your zipper.”
I was in the habit of holding the match in one hand, and just flicking the end with a thumb nail, one flick, and the match would ignite. Very handy while your other hand was busy holding something. CSA
Actually, I got pretty good at it. Then, one day, I used that method to light a BBQ fire as my then 8 year old son watched. “OH, COOOL!” he yelled. “Will you teach ME to do that?” I quit doing it after that.
Could even light a wood match off my tooth. Replaced the manual light oven in the guest cabin after a blowup, nothing but singed eyebrows and an I feel so stupid from my sis who grew up knowing better but forgot. Now I am among the survivung members that squirted lighter fluid to help a fire catch, just got to be quick like that auto insurance commercial with the dollar bill on the fishing line, gotta be quick.
I recall lighting a strike-anywhere match with my thumbnail, only to have a piece of it break off. Ouch!
Strike-anywhere matches are all over Amazon, although those available at walmart.com appear to be only the strike-on-box variety. It never occurred to me that the old fashioned ones had become unpopular.
I removed the reverse electric clutch shut off switch and the dead man switch from my lawnmower. Those things drove me nuts.
I want remodeling a house for a customer that’d just purchased it. It had an enclosed back porch and the nuckleheads cut a nitch in the wall separating the porch and basement stairwell. They framed it up and paneled it then slid the propane bbq grill in place. When I tore it out, all the framing was charred. How it kept from burning the house down was a miracle.
Just a nod to the power of Coleman fuel. I was having trouble getting a campfire going and threw a half a Styrofoam cup of Coleman fuel on the fire. I had a windbreaker on and after the whoosh, I discovered it had singed the hair off my arms under the windbreaker. Took a little eyebrow off too. Won’t do that again.
Whenever we’re winter camping and are having trouble getting a fire lit, we’ll put some Coleman fuel into small ziploc bags and then will toss them onto the struggling fire. Usually we toss them from a good distance away (15+ feet), so when the flare-up occurs, we’re far away.
