It was not a big surprise to learn that the cause of a major fire on the University of Nebraska-Omaha campus was a discarded cigarette. While the details are few, I'll wager there is a fair chance that a stubbed butt was tossed in a plastic container. This seems to be a common theme for smoking-related fires.
Fortunately, no one was killed, and only one minor injury to a firefighter occurred. The property loss is huge, however, and few if any of the displaced students have renter's insurance that will cover their personal property. I imagine they'd like to have a few private words with the careless smoker who caused this catastrophe.
The easiest way to avoid such fires is to quit smoking. The next best way is to extinguish and discard smoking materials in a non-flammable container. Duh.
Friday, February 28, 2014
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7 comments:
in·flam·ma·ble
adjective \in-ˈfla-mə-bəl\
: capable of being set on fire and of burning quickly
: easily excited or angered
7:47,
Non-flammable, duh. Would it be non-believable if I blamed that on auto-correct? ;)
It certainly wouldn't be inbelievable.
According to my online dictionary, Tom's use of non-flammable is correct, except that the hyphen is not necessary. In-flammable would be incorrect, as Tom meant that cigarettes should be disposed of in containers that do not easily catch fire. I have always found it odd that inflammable and flammable have the exact same meaning. One thing I would change in Tom's original post, it the "an" he placed in front of non-flammable. I would used an "a".
Steve,
You're looking at the corrected version. My original post incorrectly used "inflammable", which has the opposite meaning of non-flammable. 7:47 was kind to point out my mistake, and you are with the "an", which has also been corrected!
I always make sure I use a proper butt receptacle. Safety first!
I am irked by people who just flick the still burning cigbutt out the car window, onto the sidewalk, etc. I'm actually surprised theren't aren't more fires caused by such careless and selfish behavior. Several years ago a guy tossed a burning cigbutt out his truck window and it landed squarely in my lap as I was driving a Miata convertible. I was lucky to not be burned.
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