What is Digg?51 Comments
- crazyguy821, on 10/12/2007, -3/+60Excellent example of the progression of fire in an occupancy. What you see in the room at the very end is what firefighters normally see when we enter a structure, nothing. If you ever have wondered why you hear all these stories of firefighters getting lost, injured or dying just feet away from a safe exit it is because it is a very disorienting environment, sometimes the only senses you have is touch and hearing that are both limited by the gear you are wearing. At any rate this is what makes it such a rush to work in this sort of environment, it test your limits both physically and mentally. The temp. in that room near the end is probally 400F or greater near the floor. Take basic safety precautions this holiday season, dont overload electrical outlets and make sure if you use a real tree that you dont let it get so dry that this happens.
- crazyguy821, on 10/12/2007, -1/+36thats whats wrong with you young ones....attention span is too short
- bebop717, on 10/12/2007, -0/+31O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, OH ***** THE CHRISTMAS TREE!
- sinner0423, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15God damn, do they treat christmas trees with gasoline before they sell them?
That thing went up quicker than anything i've ever seen before. Crazy stuff. - ralphie81, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16@falcon
I'd much rather read an educational paragraph than the bitching one liners that are often seen on this site. Kudos, crazyguy, thanks for your informed input. - selrahc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9If only it were that easy to get the woodstove to start...
- marinist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9And before string lights, people attached lit candles to their trees(!). I bet the holidays where a busy time for fire crews.
- rmw132, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Yes they are. I am a volunteer firefighter and it's amazing how fast fire moves. People don't realize a small flame can get out of control *very* fast.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Wow, that was fast. 30 seconds and your house is gone!
- LazyBoy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8pyro
- nogami, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8It's not really all that risky so long as you water the tree properly so it doesn't turn into the dry kindling, and turn off any lights attached to the tree when nobody is around to keep an eye on things (ie: at night, or when you go out).
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9That's what you get for planting a tree inside your home.
- Shorties, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I never buy dead trees, two reasons, one they dry faster and are more likely to burn, and two you have to buy a new one every year, we use the same tree for about 5 years then it gets too tall so we plant it in the back yard and get a new one.
- interiot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Yup. I used to be a pryo back in the day. Things like gasoline and black powder were a bit too fast and out of control, but things like a good dry christmas tree, melted naphthalene mothballs, or a gallon jug of rubber cement were just one notch down from gasoline, and were quite fun (as long as they're done outdoors, reasonably safely).
- demonthises, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6This may be an abuse of the comment system, but here is where the original vid came from:
http://fire.nist.gov/tree_fire.htm
http://fire.nist.gov also has vids of other things going up in flames, but none of them are as scary as that Christmas tree. - darkamster07, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Holy *****! I have one of those Mountain Dew can trees, so I'm OK I guess...
- unitethenations, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6@interiot:
? - cesig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I think the whole room just filled up with smoke so you couldn't see anything anymore. I watched it a few times and couldn't see that they were putting the fire out.
- MasterSharma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4That fire was actually more scary then I anticipated
- synclare, on 11/26/2008, -2/+6Lets ban toaster ovens too, by that logic. And Curling irons, space heaters, candles, electrical outlets, and a hundred other things that cause fires every year. The problem is careless people, not having a small bit of nature in your home for a few days of the year.
- zoziw, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Yet if I chopped that tree up, put it in a fireplace and tried to light it on fire, I would probably go through a book of matches or use up all of my lighter fluid trying to get a fire going.
- darkamster07, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3jeez I had to burn that stuff like 24/7 for a science fair project once. I inhaled so many fumes that I started to smell weird stuff like oranges when I was nowhere near any
- Spire3660, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9I never understand why people insist on putting real X-mas trees in their home. The risk is just too great. Basically you are paying to buy a pile of kindling and then adorn it with strings of shoddily made electric lights. That doesnt even take into account the watering, cleaning up of the fallen pine needles etc. Just not worth it for me and my family.
- rambokilla, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7i think i enjoyed that too much.
- t0ny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Every year after xmas I take my tree outside and burn it. Its crazy how fast they burn.
- deuceswilde, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4They also had the walls insulated with napalm, everything in that house was just waiting to light on fire.
- Spire3660, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5@cplkai
The problem with your post is that you dont have to constantly water your table to help prevent it from catching fire. And, most people generally dont place multiple strings of cheap lights all over it. Thanks for the Digg down though. - Steve95613, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Its better to decorate another "green" tree..and have a very merry Christmas!
Dont forget the eggnog and cookies. - wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2A comparison of a dry vs fresh (watered) tree. Keep the tree watered an you'll be OK.
http://fire.nist.gov/videotest/TreeComp.mpg - lunar, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7"this is what makes it such a rush to work in this sort of environment"
Definitely right on that one. Speaking as a volunteer firefighter, that fire looks like it'd be a blast to fight. And that was only a minute into it. Imagine the size of the fire after the average four minute response time.
But we have few, if any, christmas tree fires in my township. We usually get chimney fires during this season. - Agret, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2One of my friends from grade school had a tree in the middle of their house, it was pretty cool. The house had been designed around the tree with a winding staircase and such.
- ThinkBox, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5and yet the title of the story includes the time it would indeed be taking.
not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are we? - exec721, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I meant before I saw the headline... Jackass.
- proliance, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1On Christmas day in 1968 my neighbor's house burned down, killing a young child. The fire dept. said it was the Christmas tree. I'll never forget my desperate father trying to stretch our garden house to their house, but it was too short.
I've thought about this little kid and his family every Christmas for almost 40 years now.
If you have a live tree, check the water. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3That was a pretty interesting controlled experiment...I wish they hadn't put out the flames at the end.
- wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If this was from somewhere other than NIST, I'd think that the they had overdried the tree, and set things up to make it more spectacular. Still, they admit that it was a dry scotch pine ("The mighty scotch pine!"), a tree with fairly long needles, and a good bit of turpenes and other nice flammable stuff.
- kd1s, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't use live trees. Part of that is because cats love the water bowl for the trees and you end up with a dried out tree in a days time.
But thankfully response time for fire department here is < 1 minute. Gotta love a central alarm system and being < .5 miles from two fire stations. - BigKitty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They don't need to treat them with gasoline. Conifers are highly flammable, particularly when the moisture content gets low. Downed branches, downed trees, and dry needles make good tinder.
As a matter of fact, I'm currently living in beautiful South Carolina, one of the states where conifers are grown for timber and other purposes. Many conifers grow in an environment that relies on a regular cycle naturally-occuring of forest understory fires. Some conifers, such as the longleaf pine, don't grow well without those fires. - sahaskatta, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4i just unplugged my christmas tree lights
- ya2sin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Burn them all down.
http://jahtruth.net/xmas.htm - PoserDad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Thats exactly why I just have my kids look at the neighbors tree through the windows with the binoculars. Our biggest problem is sharing the binoculars...
Next year we may graduate to a picture of a neighbors tree in our house.. That will reduce the seasonal wrestling injuries. - essjay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Thats genuinely frightening. Fake trees dowsed in water from now on...
- exec721, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Dang, that was much faster than I had imagined it would take.
- Sphearion, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Flaming Christmas trees..... gee do you know how many gay tree jokes popped in my head.... I'm not right
- wacki, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3The whole tree was on fire in 4 seconds flat? WTF. Did they coat the tree in diesel fuel or something? Even if the tree was bone dry that is lightning fast. I've done a lot of camping and I've never seen anything take fire that fast without an accelerator.
- MatCon5, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0So old.
- MacLiberal, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Every year hundreds of homes are destroyed by burning christmas trees, they are a threat to not only their owners but to their neighbors as well. Natural christmas trees should be banned.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -12/+6THE WIIMOTE DID IT!
- cplkai, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3Yeah, while were at it, lets just ditch the wood dining table for plastic too.
- Calypsoaf, on 10/12/2007, -17/+4Yes.
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