Burned Up Toasted Tesla On Lake Champlain Getting Lots Of Attention

A burnt up Tesla on the ice, Shelburne Bay, Lake Champlain
 

Vermont seems to be a bit of a magnet for weird mishaps.

Which is why I wasn't totally, 100% shocked when a 2019 Tesla Model X recently went up in flames atop the ice on deeply frozen Shelburne Bay in Lake Champlain.  

I guess it was such a big deal that web sites all over the place picked up on the story. This includes Jalopnik and Popular Mechanics wrote up articles about this unfortunate Tesla.

Popular Mechanics had this likely explanation for the blaze

"The specific cause of the fire is as yet unknown. People on Tesla forums who saw the crazy pictures began to speculate about insurance fraud or someother oddball explanation, but the most likely explanation would be battery failure. If damaged, lithium-ion batteries can rapidly discharge their stored energy in the form of heat, leading to an inferno. The bigger the battery, the bigger the fire.

Teslas necessarily have a giant battery pack, so if the car suffers sufficiently severe impact, it can go up in flames."

The driver of the car reported hitting something on the road, perhaps a rock or a big pothole or frost heave, reports Seven Days. The motorists said he smelled something odd after hitting whatever he hit. That might have damaged the battery, leading to the Tesla fire a little later on Shelburne Bay.

As the fire raged, the Shelburne Fire Department wisely decided not to drive their 50,000-pound fire truck out onto the ice to put out the blaze, notes Seven Days.  So the Tesla burned to a crisp.

By the way, the fire didn't melt too much of the ice and let the Tesla fall through because most of the heat of the blaze was directed upward, away from the ice.

It's the owner's responsibility to get the Tesla off the ice. And you wouldn't want it to sink into the water when the ice melts, due to a pollution risk.

The Burlington Free Press says a towing company got the wreckage off the ice a few days ago, but it wasn't easy. It had frozen back onto the ice, and had to be pried loose.

Here's a YouTube video, taken on the day they were trying to get the remains of the Tesla off the lake:

Classic Florida Crime, Classic Canada Crime

This advice should be obvious, but a Florida man learned you should
never bake cookies on a George Foreman grill indoors while
drunk, high and naked. 

Both Florida and Canada have reputations for seeing some of rthe world's most unique crimes and police incidents.

The two locations have crimes that are totally different from one another, but they can be entertaining.

The following two incidents perfectly tell us the difference between Florida and Canada. Let's start with Florida.

The headline in nwfdailynews.com gets us started perfectly: "Naked man starts house fire while baking cookies on George Foreman grill."

Boy, you want to read more after seeing that headline and nwfdailynews.com delivers. Here's an excerpt:

"When firefighters got to the home around 5:30 p.m., they could see smoke coming from inside. A naked man opened the front door, said, 'I'm sorry' and closed the door. Police arrived shortly after to assist. The man came to the door again, left it open and went back into the house."

Police said since the man showed no signs that he cared for his safety, they removed him from the house.

It turns out the guy drank two liters of vodka and smoked marijuana for three hours when he decided to bake cookies indoors on his George Foreman grill. That started a fire. The moron put dry towels on the grill in a failed (obviously!) attempt to put out the fire. The towels caught fire, naturally.

Somehow, the man was not hurt.

Yes, this is classic Florida: It's bizarre, and to most people there, the bizarre seems routine

Meanwhile,  Canada had its own quintessential crime caper. This one involves bear spray, a glass bong, inept robbers and an intrepid pot shop owner.

In this still from security camera footage, the guy on the right
wields a glass bong to ward off the guy on the left, who
is trying to rob the pot store with bear spray as a weapon. 

According to the CBC, a clerk at a Shannonville, Ontario cannabis dispensary used a glass bong to fight off thieves who were attacking him and another clerk with bear spray.

No, we don't have armed robberies in Canada. No guns. They use bear spray, apparently.

Says the CBC: "A security video shows the suspects approaching a man and woman standing behing the counter, then squirting them with what appears to be bear spray. The male clerk came from behind the counter and found the men off, swinging the bong at them until they fled the store."

I think of people who are involved with pot to be pretty mellow, but watch the security camera video below. Look at the store clerk's face towards the end. This guy is fierce!

This Video Shows Why Computer-Written News Copy Is Still Horribly Bad

I encountered a news video of a fatal house fire in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts recently.

An elderly man recently died in this Massachusetts house
fire, and an insulting computer generated "news" video
just made the situation even worse. 

The insulting, off the rails report of the fire showed that automation does not work when it comes to reporting on the news.

An outfit called World Today posted the video of the house fire, which was probably lifted from legitimate television news stations who were covering the fire.

The intro features some really bad dance club music, as if a tragic fire was an occasion to party.

The World Today video had an automated, computer generated voice that described the death in the house fire this way: "Police affirmed small time who lived in the house kicked the bucket thus of the fire."

Huh?

We also learned, "A working fire task was struck when firefighters touched bases as the house was immersed in blazes."

When the fire got too big for firefighters to work inside the house, the World Today video reported, "Firefighters were requested out of the building not long after arriving and are just battling the fire all things considered."

What do you mean "all things considered?" I don't even want to guess.

In reality, the fire was tragic. An 86-year old man's lawn mower caught fire, then caught his clothes on fire, and burned down his house. The elderly man died, and the house was destroyed, legitimate news station CBS Boston reported. 

Here's the horrible, cringe-inducing video, but you gotta see and hear it to believe it:

Now Is Not The Time To Visit Atlanta, Georgia

The big fire that collapsed a major Interstate 85 bridge
in Atlanta Thursday.

That was bizarre, wasn't it?

In case you haven't seen the news, a major Interstate highway caught fire in Atlanta, Georgia Thursday and the spectacular blaze caused a bridge to collapse.

Luckily, nobody was seriously hurt, but I didn't know Interstate highways could burn.

They're saying there was a lot of PVC piping under the bridges and road bed, and that's what burned. I guess PVC was inexpensive and efficient, but in hindsight, maybe not the best material in the world.

Here's the trouble: Atlanta is the Los Angeles of the South in terms of highways. The Atlanta metro area is laced with freeways, all of them congested most of the time.

The Interstate 85 fire, including the bridge collapse, is going to be a stunner.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has wisely declared a state of emergency, since nobody is going to get anywhere in the Atlanta area until this is fixed. You can imagine the economic impacts.

Plus, you can't rebuild a major Interstate bridge in an urban area in a day. It's going to take a lot of time.

I also love and am frightened by this detail of the fire from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The fire was near a bunch of popular adult entertainment businesses, which had to close because of the dense smoke hanging over the region. The fire was also near the headquarters of the Orkin pesticide company.

Lovely.

Politicians from Donald Trump on down keep saying we have to sink a lot of investments into infrastructure, but they never do it.

This weird fire is one indication that maybe all these leaders should put their money - or, more accurately, taxpayer money -  where their mouths are.

I wouldn't mind seeing some of my tax money going toward road construction instead of the president's golf trips, no?

Videos:

There were some technical hiccups with this news chopper view of the Interstate 85 bridge collapsing in Atlanta, but it's still pretty dramatic:



A brief, scary view of driving by the raging fire:

 

Lawyer, Lawyer, Pants On Fire!

Attotrney Steven Guitierrez'a pants caught on
fire when he was litigating a Florida
arson case.

The sometimes unfair stereotype of lawyers is that they're liars, that "lawyer" is just another way of saying "liar."

And we've all heard the chant directed at the dishonest: "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

Well, in Florida,  (where else would something like this occur?) while a defense attorney was litigating an arson case of all things, his pants caught on fire.

Literally.

According to the Miami Herald:

"Stephen Gutierrez, who was arguing that his client's car spontaneously combusted and was not intentionally set on fire, had been fiddling in his pocket as he was about to address jurors when smoke began billowing out his right pocket."

As you might expect, Gutierrez rushed out of the courtroom. Jurors were ushered out out, and soon, Gutierrez returned, without injury but definitely with singed pants. '

This was not an elaborate defense demonstration, the Miami Herald said. It was a faulty battery in an e-cigarette in Gutierrez's pocket.

The Miami Herald tried to contact Gutierrez, but he didn't return the calls.

Whatever happened, it didn't help Gutierrez'a client, Claudy Charles. He was convicted of second degree arson.

Gutierrez could be held in contempt of court because of the incident, the Miami Herald says, but this isn't the first time e-cigarettes have caused trouble.

As I noted back in November, e-cigarette batteries do seem to have a nasty habit of exploding and/or catching fire, which isn't a good thing for e-cigarette enthusiasts.

I guess that's one habit I won't take up, then.

 Repeated calls to Gutierrez’s cellphone went unanswered. Miami-Dade police and prosecutors are now investigating the episode. Officers seized several frayed e-cigarette batteries as evidence.

“A lot of people could have been hurt,” another observer in court told the Miami Herald.Gutierrez was representing Claudy Charles, 48, who is accused of intentionally setting his car on fire in South Miami-Dade. He had just started his closing arguments when the fire broke out. Jurors convicted Charles anyway of second-degree arson.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman, in the coming days, could decide to hold Gutierrez in contempt of court.

The 28-year-old lawyer graduated from Florida International University’s law school in 2015.

With millions of users across the country, e-cigarettes deliver vaporized nicotine through a heated liquid solution. But questions about the health and fire risks of the products have mounted, with the U.S. Department of Transportation recently banning e-cigarettes from checked bags on airplanes.

Last year, a Naples man filed suit in Miami-Dade after an e-cigarette exploded in his mouth, leaving him in a coma.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article137317553.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article137317553.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article137317553.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article137317553.html#storylink=cpy

Very Scary High Rise Fire, Collapse In Iran

The Tehran high rise building on fire before it collapsed

In case you missed it on the news, there was a very scary fire in a high rise building in Tehran, Iran yesterday in which at least 30 people, mostly firefighters, lost their lives.

The fire was in what is described as Tehran's iconic Plasco building, which was the first high rise built in Tehran, back in the early 1960s. The structure was 17 stories tall.

It's unclear at this point what started the fire, but it appears it began on the ninth floor and spread quickly.

The building's collapse came as scores of firefighters sprayed water on the structure, trying to put out the flames.

In the awful video clip you'll see below, there's a firefighter on a tall aerial ladder spraying water into flaming windows when the building came down. That firefighter survived, but many of his colleagues died.

Watch:

 

Idiots Light Shelves Of Fireworks In A Walmart Apparently Because It's Fun

Somebody set fire to this display of fireworks
inside a Phoenix Walmart.  

If you're in Arizona, you can buy fireworks for your Fourth of July celebrations at a Walmart.

Except at one Phoenix Walmart at the moment.

That's because some idiots decided it would be fun to light them on fire while the fireworks were still on the store shelves in that Walmart.

You can see the two videos of the incident at the bottom of this post. Pretty wild.

Whoever set the fire - and their faces are on security cameras from the store - could face 20 years in prison with a felony conviction for doing this.

Store staff evacuated the busy store. Some of them were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation from breathing all that smoke in while making sure everybody was out of the building.

On the bright side, the flames were extinguished before they reached a nearby display of lighter fluid and propane, which really would have caused a mess.

But the store is closed because of extensive smoke and water damage.

Because of some idiots.

First video was taken right by the display as it burst into flames, the second one is store surveillance cameras narrated by a snarky guy, but still pretty fascinating to watch.

And stupid. If that fire spread any quicker, some of those shoppers and Walmart staff could have been killed.

Super Soakers Prevent Fire Tragedy

One of the kids who squelched what could have
been a dangerous fire with Super Soakers 

The call to the West Fargo, North Dakota fire department seemed dire:

A blaze was starting to crawl up the siding and balcony support of an apartment building. Toward the apartment where a home bound, disabled man on oxygen lived. A man who couldn't escape or fight the fire on his own.

The fire was catching some decking on fire, too. A propane tank from a grill was just feet away from the flames.

The fire trucks raced to the scene, only to find no fire. Just the smoldering remains of a planter destroyed by flames, some melted, burned siding on the building and some charring on the deck support beam, and a deck that was partly scorched.

Oh, and some kids with Super Soakers.

The kids had been playing with the Super Soakers when the spotted the flames. They turned their guns on what had been a growing fire to keep it at bay until the firefighters arrived.

Devin Darnell had attacked the flames from below the deck with his Super Soaker, says television station WDAY. His friend, Katelyn Simon opened fire on the blaze from a neighboring deck.

"I was squirting at it and there was sparks and stuff falling down," said Devon.

Another kid called the fire department and neighbors banged on doors, alerting residents.

West Fargo Fire Chief Dan Fuller said he was really surprised and pleased by the kids' firefighting efforts. "It got into the siding, it got into the decking. We were probably minutes away from having a real, real serious fire," Fuller said.

But the Super Soaker kids prevented that from happening.

After the excitement was over, the West Fargo Fire Department brought the kids to the fire station for a tour and a pizza party.

Security Camera Catches Home Burning In Fort McMurray Cataclysm

Screen shot of security camera from inside a home
being destroyed by the Fort McMurray, Canada
wildfire disaster, that's still ongoing. 

I've been writing about that terrible wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada on my sister blog, Matt's Weather Rapport, but a video from that fire deserves a look here, too.

The video is a security camera inside a Fort McMurray home. Its occupants had fled 20 minutes before the video starts as the wildfire bore down on the neighborhood.

The couple that lived in the home is safe, but sadly their home, like many, many others in Fort McMurray, are gone.

Homeowners James and Candace O'Reilly watched the video of their home being destroyed on an iPhone as they fled the fire.

The escape was harrowing enough. They were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic as everyone fled. Hot embers rained down on the truck and camper they were towing.

The couple felt terrible that there was no time for them to save the clownfish you see in the tank, and important papers and photographs, and ashes of Candace O'Reilly's late father.

The video shows the fire just outside the windows, then breaking through. It happens very fast.

It's also a good instruction to not try to stay behind to save your home in a wildfire like this. The people who lived there would have died had they tried to stay and fight.

Here's the video:

 

Australian River Bursts Into Flames

A river ablaze in Australia due to methane seeps. Some blame
nearby fracking operations, while others say this
is naturally occuring.  

I thought rivers that caught fire were a legacy of intense 1960s and 1970s pollution. Remember the Cuyahoga River in Ohio burning way back in the late 1960s.

It turns out, a river was just set on fire in Australia.

Last month, an Australian MP named Jeremy Buckingham went up the Condamine River in Queensland, came up to a area where methane was bubbling up, and set the river ablaze.

The video is at the bottom of this post.

Buckingham, a member of the Green Party, blamed the seeping methane and the fact he was able to set the river on fire on fracking nearby.

CBC News reports Buckingham said a nearby coal gas seam, or CGS, operation is to blame. In the video, he says, "This area has been drilled with thousands of CSG wells and fracked. This river for kilimeters is bubblilng with gas and now it's on fire."

Buckingham and the Green Party are trying to ban fracking in Australia.

CBC says there have been reports of methane seeps in the Condamine River since 2012

A scientific analysis firm said there could be a number of reasons for the methane bubbling. It could be the fracking or other similar activities, or it could be caused by drought and the recharging of acqufers after floods.

Coals is near the earth's surface in the area, so it's easy for gases to rise to the surface from the coal seams.

For its part the local coal and fracking companies say that they are not to blame, that naturally occuring gas seeps occur and can be lit on fire, but they pose no threat to the public.

In any event, burning rivers are probably not a good thing.

Here's the video:

Can't Resist Hero Dog Stories: Maxx Leads FIrefighters To Trapped Children In Fire

Maxx leading firefighters to two children
trapped in a burning Florida home.  

The latest hero in the news is Maxx.

A house burst into flames one recent night in an Orlando suburb.

Arriving firefighters quickly realized that two children, ages four and two, were trapped somewhere in the large, flaming house, but they really didn't know where.

But Maxx, the family dog knew exactly where they were.

He led firefighters through thick smoke to where the children were, says television station WFLA and the Associated Press. 

Everyone from the house, including Maxx, were seriously injured in the fire, mostly from smoke inhalation, but because of Maxx, everyone survived.

At last report Maxx was doing well.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for the family, and Maxx of course. As of Saturday morning, about $41,000 had been raised, which is great, especially given the huge hospital bills and rebuilding the family will have to face.

Hey, the family deserves the help, and Maxx sure could use a reward!

Good boy, Maxx!

Surreal Fireworks Amid Hotel Fire In Dubai

Smoke from a fire raging in a Dubai high rise hotel
partly obscures New Years Eve fireworks from the Burj Khalifa tower. 

Every year, Dubai sets off an insanely amazing fireworks display from the Burj Khalifa skyscraper, the tallest in the world.

This year was surreal, as you might have heard on the news the nearby Address Hotel, a 63-story luxury tower, was engulfed in a huge fire.

Amazingly, nobody died in the fire and only something like 14 people got hurt seriously enough to be taken to the hospital.

The hotel fire and the fireworks, which went off as planned, created this strange video:

Would-Be Darwin Award Winners Burn Autumn Leaves

The most dangerous way to get rid of autum leaves

Do NOT try this at home

A couple of dumb people posted a video to Facebook of how they got rid of a long pile of fallen autumn leaves.

You shouldn't burn leaves anyway as it's illegal in most places. The smoke is unhealthy. It's also a bad idea to soak them in gasoline.

These morons did anyway:

Dog Steals Pizza, Almost Burns Down House

A pizza thief and accidental arsonist caught in the act. 

Leftover pizza!  Yum!!

Some was sitting atop a stove in a Connecticut kitchen recently. So one of the dogs in the house decided to have a slice because why not?

Of course, there's always a mistake made in a crime, in this case, stealing a pizza.

The dog accidentally turned the stove burner on, and it was all caught on a security camera.

Luckily, the dog's human companions were in the other room and were able to avoid catastrophe.

Oh, and the humans subsequently put child proofing on the stove knobs, relocated smoke detectors and never leave anything on the stove. You'll see why in this video:

Would-Be Darwin Award Winner Tries To Put Out Fire Using Ammunition-Laden Van

A van and its cargo of ammo goes up in flames
in Missouri after a guy tried to use the van to
put out a garbage fire he'd set. 

One of the worst ways to get rid of garbage is to burn it. It releases toxic smoke.

That was the man's first mistake when he set fire to pile of trash in a Missouri field.

From there, the man kept letting his dumbness cascade with abandon.

According to the Kansas City Star, (Note, the link has an obnoxious autoplay)  the garbage fire started getting out of control. The man, who the paper did not identify, thought he could put the fire out by repeatedly driving his van over it.

Yes, yes, you and I know what would happen when we do that, but he didn't. The van's tires caught fire and soon the van was ablaze.

Oh, and did I mention the van was full of ammunition? And the guy knew that before trying to use the van to put out the fire?

A Clay County Deputy Sheriff who was conducting a traffic stop nearby, noticed the black smoke and went to investigate. Which is how we found out about this.

The deputy sheriff, probably knowing that if he cited the guy, the man's name would be made public record, decided not to file a complaint. The lawman also probably figured the guy was already being punished enough for his stupidity.

Also, nobody got hurt, so there was that good fortune.

The man with the van and the ammunition didn't file an insurance claim either, says the Kansas City Star. Too embarrassing?

Next time, dude, try putting out a fire with gasoline. That'll work!

How Not To Kill A Spider At A Gas Station

Here's why you don't kill a spider crawling across
your gas cap on your car with a cigarette lighter
while you're pumping gas.  

So a guy pulls up to a gas pump near Detroit, Michigan and starts filling up.

Unfortunately, a spider starts to walk across the car, right across where the gas was pouring into his tank.

Like many people, our hero HATES spiders. Detests them. Is scared of him. The spider Has. To. Die.

So what does this guy do? He whips out his cigarette lighter, and decides to set fire to the spider, Which is on the gas intake on the car. While he is pumping gas, reported Fox 2 News Detroit. 

You'll never guess what happens next.

But you did, didn't you!!!

Luckily, nobody got hurt. Except maybe the spider. Information is sorely lacking on the spider's fate.

But the gas pump was destroyed. And our hero will forever be known as an almost Darwin Award nominee.

Luckily, the gas station attendent was on the ball, and shut off the flow of gasoline as soon as she saw the flames.

The car, believe it or not, suffered just light damage. And the guy came back the next day to finish filling his gas tank. This time, there were no spiders, so things went OK.

Watch for yourself if you really want to watch dumb:

Lysol Can Attacks Firefighters

Firefighters were called to a house fire recently in Homeland Park, South Carolina.

The house was pretty trashed by the fire, and at least one thing was PISSED: A Lysol can.

As firefighters doused the flames, an overheated can of Lysol did this:

Dramatic Dubai Fire: Metal And Glass Buildings Burn, Too

The massive fire in a 79-floor apartment building
in Dubai Friday.  

You might have seen the dramatic images out of Dubai, but this must have been a nightmare for the residents in this building.

The ironically named Torch Building, a 79-story residential apartment building burst into flames yesterday, and the large file burned for hours, raining debris on the streets below.

The Guardian said the fire appears to have been accidental, but there were some surprising glitches with this fire.

Apparently, fire alarms didn't go off right away. People weren't really aware until somebody in a nearby building called a receptionist in the Torch Building mentioning there was a fire.

It's unclear how many apartment are ruined, but it looks like some of the people who live in the lower floors will be able to get back in pretty soon.

Because of all the debris raining down, neighboring high rise apartment buildings were also evacuated, but those residents were allowed back in.

I haven't heard of many injuries, but you never know. As you might expect, any high rise building fire is very scary, and I imagine, very hard to extinguish.

Here's a CNN video of the scene. Pretty wild:

Which Travel Woe Would You Rather Encounter

Would you rather encounter this fog on an afternoon's drive
 

Driving home from work this afternoon, I encountered dense fog and slightly slippery highways in northwestern Vermont.

It was a bit of a pain, trying to peer through the fog and making sure I wasn't going to slam into anything hidden within the murk.

I suppose that was better, though, than what travelers along I-78 in Union Township, New Jersey, encountered.

I don't have a lot of details about Union Township, but it does look pretty icky to me.

Or would this scene in Union
Township, N.J. be more to
your liking. 

So, between the two photos in this post, the dense fog near St. Albans, Vermont and the dense smoke and fire near Union Township, New Jersey, which would you pick?

I feel kind of lucky that I only had to deal with the fog in Vermont.

Huge Flames, Dense Smoke, Explosions. No Worries, I'll Go In There And Get The Guy

The entire city of Fresno, California is looking
for the man in the blue Dodgers cap who
dashed into a flaming house and
carried a 73 year old man to safety.  

UPDATE:

The guy who rescued the man from this fire has been found. His name is Thomas Artiago, and the man he rescued have been reunited, says KFSN in Fresno.

KFSN reports Artiago "remains humble about the experience, saying he wasn't acting bravely or even courageously. He just acted.

'It was just an instinct, you know,' he said. 'Instinct, you see someone and help out people.'""

 PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:

Authorities are on the lookout for a guy who took something precious from a California home.

They're not going to arrest him, or charge him with any crimes. They just want to find the right person to thank.

The "thing" this guy took from the house was a 73 year old man who was on oxygen.

The house was flaming, big time, and filled with dense smoke. Explosions rattled around inside. The fire department wasn't there yet. 

You'll see it in the video at the bottom of this post, but nobody dared go into that conflagration to get the poor guy out. It was super hot. The explosions weren't helping. But some guy in a Dodgers cap raced in and got the man.

A dramatic video shot by a woman named Beth Lederach, who was driving by, saw the smoke, called 911 and then started filming.

"The rescuer appeared to have 'come out of nowhere,' Lederach said. 'He just calmly walked right in there and came walking right back out with this guy,'" says the Fresno Bee. 

Police believed the rescuer stopped by a hospital after the incident to be treated for smoke inhalation. Then he disappeared.

The 73 year old guy, Robert Wells is going to be OK, too. He suffered from smoke inhalation, which isn't exactly too surprising. But he's on the mend.

"I wasn't going fast enough, so a guy picked me up and carried me out there. He was kind of in a half run," Wells told television station KFSN. 

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart, that I made it out," Wells told KFSN, hoping the rescuer was watching.

Here's the dramatic video: