26 August 2001 // Smart pyromaniacs good. Moron pyromaniacs BAD.
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Just got home from doing laundry at my parents' house, and what happens? Some moron in my building was trying to get his charcoal grill going on his little patio, and was joing to put "just a little" gas - not lighter fluid, but regular gas ("I've done it before" he said) - on the coals, and accidently dropped the whole can on the grill. FWOOM! I had just parked and was carrying the first load of stuff to my apartment just after it went up, and the guy was trying to put it out with his fire extinguisher. The conversation in my head went something like this:
Firekid: Hey, there's a fire over there!
Dilandau: YES!!!
Elya: Oh shit. I just got my renter's insurance, i haven't inventoried anything yet, i don't need to lose all my stuff in a fire...
Firekid: Oooh, pretty.
Dilandau: *evil giggling*
Elya: ...should i call the fire department? Is the guy okay? Firekid, do something.
Firekid: *stares at the flames and tries to dampen them using her fire control (which doesn't work real well since she's just a character in my head)*
Dilandau: Moero! MOEEEROOOOOOO!
Elya: *walking away to put the stuff in the apartment* Down, Dilandau! Down! Bad Albatou! No vino!
Dilandau: *GLARE*
Yah. Um. Dropped the stuff off and went back out to see if I could help, took the cell in case i needed to call 911. The guy living above him had brought down his fire extinguisher... the pyro-moron had already used his, and the flames had gone down, but they flared back up again. As I was walking up, I asked if someone had called 911, if I should. The gal next door said yeah, so I did (I'd been wanting to try out that feature on my phone, i'll admit). While I talked I ran back to my apartment to get my extinguisher. The operator said the fire dept. had already been dispatched, and she patched me through to them. I told them the building number, first floor, yes there was someone in the apartment and he was trying to use his fire extinguisher, in fact I was bringing mine over too...
I admit, the flames were rather pretty. At one point they got high enough to burn a section out of the little ... wossname... not a balcony, like a valance, shading the sliding glass door, on the outside... what the fsck is that called... canopy, maybe? *doesn't feel like digging out the dictionary to find the exact word* Big, pretty flames, without a lot of obnoxious smoke.
Dilandau: *evil grin*
Elya: *cauliflower-shaped sigh*
When I handed over my fire extinguisher, the old guy from upstairs said it felt really light, like it was almost empty. Looking at the gauge, sure enough, it's almost down to "recharge". Great. I'll have to ask them about that at the office monday morning.
The fire truck arrived about 3 minutes later - we heard the sirens coming for about two minutes before they actually got there. Another guy (who'd come home just after I did and had seen the fire) went out to the front to direct the fire truck in, and I pointed them toward the building and the guy's patio. The firefighters went in though the apartment and put out the last of the fire, then brought a big fan (the kind you'd use for inflating a hot air balloon really quick) to blow all the smoke out of the room. Seeing the situation was under control (and the flames out *Dilandau pouts*), I brought all the rest of my stuff in from the truck. The fire truck left about 15 minutes or so later, but I could see they'd lectured the pyro-moron, and the community's security guy was getting a report (and probably lecturing him, too). Several other residents had come out to see what was going on, and my own pyromaniac tendencies leaked out a little in my account to one guy who asked me what happened. ^_^;;
So that was my excitement for the weekend. *weak laugh*
What an idiot. Baka. Baka baka BA-KAAAA!!! I'm all for nifty explosions and pyrotechnics and pretty flames and such, but really, only in a well-controlled situation, like movie special effects or that one experiment those guys did with liquid oxygen and a charcoal grill - they took precautions. Or in anime *grins at Dilandau-sama*, or fiction, or an RPG... The last thing I want to see is someone really getting hurt, real people's lives going up in flames.
For one thing, why the frak was he using gasoline?! Wouldn't that make the food taste like crap? All that petroleum? ewww, I don't even like what lighter fluid does to the taste of food - a well-set-up propane grill with mesquite chunks is much better. ^_^ My daddy taught me well the art of grilling...
For another, apparently when the guy's neighbor from upstairs first came down to investigate, the pyro-moron didn't want anyone to call the fire department - thought he could deal with it. Well, screw that. Bakayaro! If he wants to make himself a candidate for the Darwin Awards, fine with me - just do it somewhere else where you won't take anyone with you! Moron. Idiot. Dumbass. [more] Now that I know he's not actually injured, I want to go over there and slap him silly for being so stupid! "I will not tolerate incompetence in my Dragonslayers!"
Geh. *checks call history on phone* I called 911 at 10:10 p.m. ... it's now almost 1 a.m. and I still need to put away groceries and make my bed.
I wonder what the firefighters thought of my "FIREKID" vanity plate...
Oyasumi. *crash*
recent alterations //
21 November 2002 // I'm not dead yet!
03 October 2002 // Snarling bitch to genki fangirl in 0.8 seconds flat! [i]
27 September 2002 // He's got butterfly wings, not feathery angel wings. Geez, people!
25 September 2002 // The Great Oekaki Contest Begins! [ai]
14 September 2002 // The obsessiveness continues...
