Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Saving time

Its hard to judge ahead of time, when heaters will be needed. I don't really blame the maintanence staff for filling the heater's gas tank after a few days of uncomfortable coolness.

I guess, after recieving many complaints and requests for prompt service, they felt they needed to save time. Here are two men filling the heater's tank while the heater is currently on - the flame is very close to the nozzle of the gascan.


They did the same thing last year, but spilled gas on the floor. Only the foreigners seemed to notice- I have to admit being a little sheeplike; seeing the Korean staff ignore the spill and the smell, I stepped over it myself a few times, preparing for class and did not leave the room.

In both cases, there were no negative consequences but I remember a similar situation of gas fumes filling a room and being ignited in a small town next to my hometown.
A couple were removing carpeting from their basement. To soften the glue, they used gasoline. Later, the gas fumes were bothering them so they turned on a fan. The sparks naturally given off by any fan's armature ignited the gas and the couple were severely burned. I cannot remember if they died. I sincerely hope not but that would be a case of fan-death I would not be sceptical of.

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