I forgot to post about this.
Over the summer, I was standing at the service desk trying to untangle a mass of spider wraps when a pair of customers walked in the front door “do you know that your cigarette butt holder thing is on fire??” I’m thinking ok, so there’s a little smoke coming out the top, not a big deal, and walk outside to look.
Yah, it wasn’t a little smoke coming out the top.
Call a manager “hey, the cigarette butt holder outside the main entrance is on fire, like, I can see the flames on fire”. “Can you toss a bottle of water on it?” “Well, I can, but I’m pretty sure it’s way beyond that point……”
Walk back inside, grab the fire extinguisher right inside the door, and put out the fire.
It’s easy enough to figure out what happened. Customers are constantly using it as a trash can, tossing receipts and other paper in it. Then someone tossed in a lit butt.
By the time the customer alerted me to it the fire had not only melted the plastic, it was burning the melted plastic.
Lotsa fun…….
Whole forest fires start this way.
Pretty sure the customers who reported it weren’t amused with me. Cause I stopped, looked at it, and said “oh boy, my excitement for the day!!” before calling the manager.
The funny part: my work requires us to know how to use fire extinguishers, but doesn’t require us to actually use them. I could have, legally, stood there and stared at it till the manager came out. I assume its a liability thing, if someone gets hurt using an extinguisher that they were required to use…..but it amuses me anyway.
No one can be required to use a fire extinguisher at work (unless, say you are a firefighter by trade). However, in order to hang fire extinguishers at a business, people must be trained on their use. Thank OSHA for that.