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

Source: LA Times

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.

(snip)

The exact conditions of the victims was not clear.

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

and I hope they fully recover. But if not: Darwin Award.

Couple of real geniuses there.

how truly dangerous fire is, and how quickly it can move.

I think a lot of the problem stems from movies and TV shows in which people safely escape fires that in real life would not be escapable.

About twenty years ago there was a half-hour science show and one episode was about fire, which we recorded and my young son watched over and over, so a bunch of the information stuck with me. Once a fire starts in a corner of a room, it is usually about five minutes before flash-over occurs, and as the show said, most people who have seen flash over are dead.

What most people don't realize is that when we throw water in fire, it is not the water, but lowering the temperature that put out the fire.

this suffocates the fire also. It's also the number one way firefighters get burned.

The way they felt we shouldn't rescue the people in NOLA after Katrina. Both ignored evacuation orders; some willing others not.

:sarcasm:

buy a hot tub to save them from a forest fire, are probably too dumb to be saved.

I can't imagine someone living in a forest fire area NOT learning about how fire kills and how one must leave the area when there is a fire.

Are there lots of Americans as dumb as this? Not able to study the facts about their risks? Oh yes, they are called Republicans. Republicans imagine they can save themselves, and to heck with everybody else, and Republicans also refuse to accept reality and facts.

to avoid the "problems" of city life - basically having to deal with large numbers of people who aren't like them.

Republicans believe they can cash out their investments and live in a rural "paradise" without realizing the dangers of rural areas. Since they were magically taken care of in their former suburban haunts, they somehow think the same public services will take care of them in rural areas - of course without paying the higher taxes about which they would complain so bitterly.

Republicans believe they are unique and special, possessed of a unique wisdom that ordinary people don't have. The fact that they are wealthy in their mind means they are superior.

Republicans believe they can buy property in the middle of wilderness and hide from a forest fire in their hot tub.

Really? Not one single Democrat ever bought a vacation or primary home in a forested or rural area?


What an astounding post.

More than "a single democrat" has certainly bought a home in a rural area, however I believe the largest portion of people fleeing urban areas with the money to buy rural homes and build hot tubs in them are republican.

White flight has driven many anglos to flee urban areas entirely. This trend has been well documented, and has made these rural areas even more republican in their political demographics.

I never said ALL individuals without exception who buy home in rural areas are republican, did I? You do understand that exceptions do not invalidate a trend, do you?

douche.

night on trublood.