Firefighters Put Out Cigarette

a few days ago, a friend and i were walking alongside chungshan north road and passed by one of those metal garbage bins. we saw smoke coming out of it; evidently, someone had thrown in a lit cigarette and it had ignited some other trash. anyway, we went to a nearby shop and told an employee there who said he’d phone the fire department. then we noticed a police station at the next corner and went and reported the fire to them. by the time we had left the police station, which was less than five minutes after spotting the smoke, a firetruck was already on the scene. gotta say i was impressed.

of course, a pessimist might say that someone else had phoned an hour before and they were just finally showing up. but that would be a long time for a cigarette to smolder…

I saw saw fire engine on a call take 30 minutes to go a few hundred metres on deserted streets, thanks to illegally parked cars and a temple deciding to close off a street, which of course no-one did anything about :unamused: What if it had been a big fire with people in danger ?

I would have gone to 7-11, bought some water and put the thing out. Was it a big fire? If it was small enough you could’ve peed it out!

Would you put your willy in a Taipei garbage bin?

no, it wasn’t that big, but it was too damn hot out to go anywhere near a fire.

Perhaps the firefighters should be running the country then, since all the other departments appear inept. :laughing:

yeah, but let’s hope they don’t see your avatar, or you’re going to need an umbrella…

Paying for water to put out a smoking trash can is only slightly less silly than calling the fire brigade. When the same thing happened to me, I popped into the nearest snack shop and asked for a bucket of water. I was only slightly delayed because the smouldering bin was on one of those bus lane bus stops, so I had to get through some rush-hour traffic. And my reward for this heroic act was a bollocking for being late for work. :frowning:

Free water! I never thought of that! Good on you

Starbucks made rescuers at the World Trade Center pay for the water
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/starbuck.htm

What about those arsewits who light fires on public pavements on purpose about twice a month ?

Paying for water to put out a smoking trash can is only slightly less silly than calling the fire brigade. When the same thing happened to me, I popped into the nearest snack shop and asked for a bucket of water. I was only slightly delayed because the smouldering bin was on one of those bus lane bus stops, so I had to get through some rush-hour traffic. And my reward for this heroic act was a bollocking for being late for work. :frowning:[/quote]

even more effective would be to dump the bucket of water on the next smoker you seeing tossing a lit cigarette into a trash bin. i’m not anti-smoking, but i think there should be some kind of test given to people before they are allowed to light up. for example, some “true” or “false” test. A couple of sample questions:

  1. Walking down a crowded street and swinging your arms while holding a lit cigarette in your hand shows a complete disregard for the safety of other people?

True / False

  1. Throwing lit cigarettes in garbage bins could cause a fire and result in the fire department dealing with a burning garbage bin instead of dealing with a burning apartment building?

True / False

Now i know why the fire department got to that smoking trash bin so fast. They were in training:

etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/2003/07/30/1059528325.htm