This site is secured using RapidSSL
 homeabout us > news

Latest News

News October 2013

Published on 31 October 2013  | Download | back to previous


Our Fire (click to view the video)I always start writing these little items with a business idea in mind, quite often SEO, responsive design, CSS3,  HTML5 - anyone dropping off yet? Well, not today!

Today the subject is "My mother in law (M-I-L), a damaged shelf, fairy liquid bottle and a damaged sink tidy. Let's face it,  I have you now, you are pretty excited at what these have in common!

So, we have just had our kitchen refitted, thanks to Neil Thomas (http://www.thomaskitchensandbedrooms.co.uk/) for the excellent kitchen and David Finney (http://www.boilerservicesbridgend.co.uk/) for his top notch plumbing. Also thanks to Jay for the wall tiles and Steve Thomas for the floor tiles (they do not have a web site , yet!).

After the plug for our customers on to the story. Yesterday morning at 10:00am ish the kitchen fitters were done, M-I-L and Vanessa (My brave life partner) are working like whirling dervishes cleaning etc. and M-I-L asks me can she throw out a little plumbers torch I use for cooking my crème brulees and such. Of course I say no, she points out it's empty, so I go and fit a new cartridge. I then come back into the kitchen to light the unit on my new hob (with wok burner) to test and then starts the most frightening five minutes of my life.

I have not had that many frightening events in my life but the fireball of butane around my hands that resulted and a sink full of burning butane is definitely top of the list!

So, what to do when you are on fire?

1. Throw the gas canister into the sink.
2. Try to put out the fireball on my hands.
3. Turn all the taps on.
4. Ensure all people and animals are safely off the premises.
5. Consider all the risks and write an assessment on attempting to put out the fire raging in our lovely new kitchen.

These of course were done simultaneously (and they say men cannot multi-task).

I must have only had this fireball on my hands and arms for a few seconds but it seemed like a lot longer and the butane in the sink had evolved into a fire of enormous proportions (about two or three feet but  seemed pretty big at the time). After screaming instructions like "call the fire brigade", "get the fire extinguisher", "get towels", "make a coffee", "get the hosepipe on"  I have proved women cannot multitask that well but Vanessa did do them in sequence pretty quickly. The Fire Brigade were called, they were en route, the fire extinguisher did not work, (apparently dry powder gets compacted), and I am watering our new kitchen sink with a hose pipe and throwing wet towels with fervour. After several minutes that seemed more like hours I managed to put it out.

A few minutes later blue lights and sirens announced the arrival of the professionals. (very impressive, must have been there in 5 or 6 minutes, I wonder when the fire station will be moved to Morriston to co-locate with A&E to economise).

The end result of this ten minutes of hell is listed above, I feel very, very lucky . Almost no damage, and no burns, very singed but it could have been so much worse.

Information gained

My wife is great A+++
Fire Brigade A+++, even if not needed they were there. (also a special thanks to the Fire Fighter who congratulated me on a good "Stop", made me a little less stressed).
Dry powder fire extinguishers need to be checked.
Never change a butane canister indoors double checking every time.
Always be wary of what your M-I-L wants you to do.

No animals were harmed in this story but neither of the cats helped in any way.

TCRM provide Pontycymmer, Pontypool and Pontypridd Web Design. If you are from the Transantarctic Mountains region, sorry we cannot help as Andrea hates the cold otherwise no problem, contact us for that great web site
Test Image 03Test Image 02Test Image 02Test Image 02

©TCRM Technology Ltd Registered in England and Wales No. 7187581  VAT Reg.987 3114 91 
111, Ewenny Road
Bridgend
Mid Glamorgan
CF31 3LN
Tel: +44 (0)1656 655669  email: enquiries@tcrm.co.uk
Warning!!! Warning!!! Cookies are disabled Warning!!! Warning!!!