Hot grass fire at Sun-N-Fun

Peter Dohm wrote:
"Dan" wrote in message news:bwZZf.362$iF3.333@dukeread01...
John T wrote:
Thats kinda reminds me how I disposed of some old gunpowder. Dumped it
in the outdoor fireplace and touched it off. The flame built up slowly,
but it eventually had a flame about 10' high the diameter of the pile of
powder. Very impressive, but too expensive to repeat!

John

That's smokeless powder, try it with black powder Here's an
experiment: put a tablespoonful of black powder in an ash tray. Touch it
off with a blowtorch held at arm's length. The powder will burn fast
enough to extinguish the blowtorch.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

I sure hope that you meant demonstration rather than experiment; because I'd
be way too scared to try anything like that on an experimental basis.
Peter

BTW, the USAF must have been an entertaining place. :-)


It had its moments If you ever get a chance go to one of Eglin
AFB's munitions demonstrations. I think they are still open to the
public. You will get to see all kinds of things go boom.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

John Ammeter wrote:
My opinion... whenever an airshow has parking on grass fields they
become completely liable for any fires caused by catalytic converters.
It's no secret that all modern vehicles have catalytic converters and
it's no secret that hot catalytic converters WILL cause dry grass to
catch on fire.

IMHO, SNF is completely responsible for any and all damages incurred
because of the fires.

They should have cut the grass earlier and much shorter so it wouldn't
have caught on fire, causing the damage to the cars...

I have to support John on this one. I tried to sleep on that "cut"
grass. They shouldn't have cut it. They should have HARVESTED it. It
must have been knee high when they sent the tractors out, and they just
left it all clumped up. A Mazirati could have easily scooped up plenty
of that tinder into a catalytic converter "shield".

--
This is by far the hardest lesson about freedom. It goes against
instinct, and morality, to just sit back and watch people make
mistakes. We want to help them, which means control them and their
decisions, but in doing so we actually hurt them (and ourselves)."