2 residents burned while protecting home had thought hot tub could protect them

2 residents burned while protecting home had thought hot tub could protect them
August 30, 2009 | 3:04 pm

The L.A. County Sheriff's Department today provided new details on the three people who were burned while protecting their homes Saturday in Big Tujunga Canyon.

Two of the people injured refused a mandatory evacuation order, said Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Whitmore. He said that the two didn’t realize how serious the threat of the fire was, and that they thought they could protect themselves by jumping into a Jacuzzi.

But when the 80-to-100-foot flames came barreling through their neighborhood, they were seriously burned, said Whitmore.

They managed to get themselves help, he said, and the county sent in a helicopter and airlifted them to a hospital.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/2-residents-burned-protecting-home-jumped-in-hot-tub-in-attempt-to-flee-fire.html

melted.

(not there, she lives in North Hollywood).

It's really sad, though. People need to know how hot and fierce a fire can be so they can better assess their odds of survival by doing anything on their own, other than getting the hell out...

Glad they survived but it wasn't due to their own brilliance...

Seriously.

great minds, i guess. :)

by going into the river and breathing through reeds but others who went into their cellars or wells suffocated from lack of oxygen. The moral of the Minnesota fires was "get out while you can. a forest fire is nothing to play around with. they are unpredictable and fierce." Sorry they were hurt.

:silly:
\

The Jacuzzi manufacturer failed to have legible and easily understood warning labels placed on their product which would have stated that the Jacuzzi was not to be used as a place of refuge from a fire.

and you thought that if you jumped up from a plummeting plane just before it hit the ground, you'd save yourself?

These guys might still think so.

:)

I don't think it would be out of line in this case.

Your life is worth more than an inanimate object such as a house.