One more for the "Darwins"

[Engine5FF]

Had a good one today.

Redneck welding on a drive shaft. Buddy standing near by (8 deg. and snow by the way). Embers from welding touch off gas tank underneath. Welder guy gets out without a scratch. Fire ball catches buddy and sends him flying. Broken femur, hair singed off, abdominal pain (probably a spleen or other internal organ). Can see the smoke from the smoldering crater from the road but a pumper wasn't sent because welder guy told dispatch there was no fire, and welder guy never moved the 100# oxygen for the welding rig until we told him to. Had to carry buddy on a back board through 80 yards of 2 foot snow to ambo. This was his second trip in for broken bones in the last three months. How do these winners stay alive past puberty?

[NJFFSA16]

Police say New York boy upset over grades sets fire to exam, then home

(Massapequa, New York-AP) -- Authorities on Long Island, New
York, say a teen got more than he expected as he was letting out
his frustration over poor grades.
Police say the 14-year-old set some test papers on fire and
threw them out a second-floor window of his home.
But they say a fire then started outside the home -- and the
building itself began to burn when an ember blew back into the
boy's room.
It took eight trucks and 60 firefighters to put out the blaze,
which gutted the home's second floor.
The boy has been charged with fourth-degree arson.


(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[martinm]

The ost about the welders and "misinformation", reminded me about a job a few years ago in these parts.

We have quite a problem with railway equipment theives around here, who like to come along in the dead of night and steal all manner of items from the lines. In particular they are very partial to the copper cables which amongst other things, on certain lines carry the live current.

An incident occurred a few years ago when a group of theives decided they would hit the running side of a particular line, instead of the disused and non working side one night and began to dig up a live 15000 volt cable from ebside the line. So far, so good. Until they decided to chop it in half with an axe to make it easier to carry...with predictable results.

One of the team was killed instantly by the electric shock he received, and was burned black from head to foot. Obviously, the perils of being arrested on the line by the police weighed heavily on his friends minds, so they carried him home.

On arriving at their dead friends house, they laid him down outside, next to the electricity meter cupboard and placed his hand on one of the fuses, before ringing for an ambulance, explaining, there had been a terrible accident, when their friend has tried to get the power back on to his house after the fuses blew....


Needless to say, the ambulance, fire crew and the police were quite skeptical, that 240ac volts could turn someone into a very, very well done steak.

[MalahatTwo7]

How dumb can a person be and still stay alive?

Screams save man from compactor.

Emily Bowers Times Colonist Friday, January 24, 2003

Screaming for his life, a 27-year-old homeless man was compacted twice in a garbage truck in downtown Victoria Thursday and was about to go a third time when driver Brad Smith heard his cries and shut down the truck in time.

"I thought I squished this guy," Smith said.

The man, who escaped serious injury, had been sleeping in a cardboard box inside a green bin in a Broughton Street parking lot. It was about 6:30 a.m. when Smith, who works for BFI Canada Inc., emptied the dumpster into the truck and turned on the compactor, which exerts a pressure of 23 to 25 pounds per square inch.

"I heard a scream, a blood-curdling scream," Smith said.

The Victoria Fire Department sent a ladder truck and lowered a basket of firefighters and paramedics who dug the man out, strapped him to a spinal board, and lifted him out of the truck.

The man, whose name was not released, was taken to Royal Jubilee Hospital with cuts and bruises, said Victoria police Sgt. Jamie Pearce.

A hospital official said later that the man was in hospital but no other information was being released at his request. People who work with Victoria's street community say the incident should call attention to the troubles among the city's homeless who feel they have no choice but to sleep in a garbage bin.

"People are trying to survive," said Rev. Al Tysick of the Open Door, a downtown drop-in centre. "They survive any way they can."

"It's (a garbage bin) warm and a bit sheltered," said Don McTavish,
co-ordinator for shelters for the Victoria Cool Aid Society.

"(But) garbage trucks make an enormous amount of noise," he said, adding that most people who sleep in the bins are wakened by the noise of the truck nearing.

"When you drive into (a bin), they'll pop up," said Smith, who has been working for BFI for 13 1/2 years. That usually happens once or twice a week. But he said he's never had anyone go into the compactor before Thursday.

"I managed to dump a person, (Thursday morning) but I didn't know it at the time cause I couldn't hear him," said Smith. And it was only by luck that he heard the screams. The man was in the first bin Smith dumped, usually a process that has the truck pull up to the bin and hook it on to the front of the vehicle. A lift is used to pick up the bin, raise it above the cab, and dump the contents in back.

After the contents are dumped, one wall of the truck compresses backward. It's all automatic -- the driver doesn't have to leave the cab. At least, that's how it worked for the first bin -- the one with the man sleeping inside -- and the second bin, which had only recyclables.

The third one was on wheels and Smith, who works alone, had to hop out of the truck to roll it to the truck. That's when he heard the scream. "I didn't know where it was coming from," he said. But he realized in time to stop the third round of compacting. A passerby also heard the screaming, and the two started hitting the side of the truck. But they didn't hear any more noise, so Smith climbed on top, peered down, and saw the man inside.

A shaken Smith took two hours off Thursday morning, but went back to work -- with a helper -- and finished his route by about 2:30 p.m.

© Copyright 2003 Times Colonist (Victoria)

[CommDiva]

Man shot dead while beating dog with gun


WINCHESTER, Va. (AP) - A man trying to beat his dog to death with a gun was fatally wounded when it apparently went off accidentally, police said.
Raymond Poore Jr., 43, called his wife at work Thursday and told her that their dog had bitten him and he intended to kill the animal, police Capt. David Sobonya said.

The wife came home about 6 p.m. and found her husband unconscious, with a number of dog bites and scratches. Emergency medical personnel discovered that Poole had been shot. He was pronounced dead at Winchester Medical Center.

Sobonya said Poore must have beaten the 30-pound Shar-Pei with the gun that went off. He said the stock of the weapon, a combination rifle and shotgun, was broken and there appeared to be blood and dog hair on it.

The dog was in the custody of an animal control officer. Sobonya had no detail on how badly it was injured


I don't blame the dog for biting him. Please, somebody chlorinate the gene pool!!

[jce51cfd]

A number of years ago .......

Teenager shooting off fireworks out the window from a box in his bedroom because he does not want his parents to know he has them.

A spark ignights the box in his bedroom.

Room and contents fire with extension to attic on arrival.