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Vote on this poll

Water
[bar] 5/4%
Foam
[bar] 12/10%
A vaccuum
[bar] 28/24%
Gasoline
[bar] 31/27%
A silvery jumpsuit
[bar] 19/16%
A dead christmas tree
[bar] 21/18%
116 total votes
Replies are listed 'Best First'.
(bbq) RE: My favorite flame retardant
by BBQ (Curate) on Aug 09, 2000 at 23:00 UTC
    Where's the nitro?

    Seriously, I don't know if this is true or not, but I've heard that one of the ways that you can put out a flaming oil extraction plant is by bombarding it with nitroglicerene(spell check?).

    The nitro will consume oxygen faster than the burning oil and therefor extinguish the fire. Sounds cool, heh?

    #!/home/bbq/bin/perl
    # Trust no1!
      I'm not sure about that, but I know in the Middle-East there were hundreds of oil wells burning. They called in this group from Texas who used dynomite to put out the flames. It was really cool.

      They'd place the dynomite right at the point where the well was spewing oil, and detonate it. The shock wave would put out the flame (similar to using a loud sound to put out a small candle).

      Then they would (after a few hours of waiting for the well to cool down so they would work with it) put on a new valve. They did this to some 800 wells in under a year, I think (but I could be wrong).

        There's even a John Wayne movie on the subject - Hellfighters, I think. Not sure, but I remember my mom watching it over and over. They used the same technique in the movie.

        - email Ozymandias
      Not quite ... explosives do not need external oxygen to work. An oxygen supplier and the stuff to be burned are packed together in an inert way (e.g. gunpowder: the nitrate supplies the oxygen, the coal and the sulfur get burned).

      As for the extinguish-fire-with-explosives trick: every fire needs three conditions: burnable material (here: oil), oxygen (here: surrounding air) and heat (here: the flame). If you take one of these three, the fire will cease. The explosives simply blow away the flame and any heated material around it.

      Sorry if this sounds like a lecture, but fire's been a special field of interest of mine. ;-)

      Andreas

(Ozymandias) RE: My favorite flame retardant - TROUT!!!
by Ozymandias (Hermit) on Aug 09, 2000 at 23:37 UTC
    What about trouting? For certain kinds of flame, only a really good smack with a fish will do...

    - email Ozymandias
RE: My favorite flame retardant
by Nitsuj (Hermit) on Aug 10, 2000 at 00:36 UTC
    2 words.
    Controlled burning

    Got a forest fire, burn the brush out in front of it and see how long that fire lasts. Saves millions of acres of pristine and beautiful forrest every year, and still gets criticized when it is in the spotlight because the public is so uninformed.

    Also good as preventive medicine, which doesn't mean that folks should go leaving campfires unattended! What it does mean, is that the good park rangers who plan it out and do it with a good eye and a bit of expertise should get more credit!

    It is something that backpackers such as myself truly appreciate though :-)

    Just Another Perl Backpacker

    Thanks for the new sig idea jcwren!
      It's a very similar idea here in Illinois, the Prairie State. The prairies are all burned either in the fall (right after the season) or in the spring (right before the season) because it kills off all the European grass that would otherwise choke it (only one of the many reasons to burn a prairie). People didn't settle out here for years, becuase they were scared of rampant fires that just happened every so often. BIG FIRE EVERY YEAR = FUN - Infinityandbeyond
RE: My favorite flame retardant
by ivory (Pilgrim) on Aug 10, 2000 at 01:40 UTC
    Okay, I don't see how it's possible, but apparantly only a couple of people are intune with the gloriousness of foam :)

    Foam is totally cool, think about it..whipped cream, shaving cream, aren't these just fun, happy, foamy substances that you'd like to fill a big ub with and jump into? :)

    Or perhaps I am the only one.

    Ivory

      *grinning wickedly* Nope, you are not the only one that enjoys whipped cream.....

      Roy Alan

      You ever light shaving cream on fire though? I can hardly say that if I am burning, that I would jump into a tub of it. Another material that isn't alcohol based perhaps.

      Just Another Perl Backpacker
Buzzcutbuddha ( A Christmas tree? Someone's been talking to my friends..)RE: My favorite flame retardant
by buzzcutbuddha (Chaplain) on Aug 11, 2000 at 00:18 UTC
    No lie, I almost choked on my water when I saw Christmas tree. Back in my crazy youth, a warm June night my friend and I took the old Christmas tree that was underneath the deck at my mom's townhouse and dragged it down to the burnpit where the construction crew were burning their trash.

    Now we had a suspicion that the tree would burn fast, being sixth months old, and all the needles yellow and brittle, so we took out our can of WD40 and sprayed a nice fat wet path out of the burn pit to the edge and took our matches, lit on, and dropped it on the WD40.

    The blue trail of flame was small and weak and made it's own way to the tree in it's own good time, and for a minute, nothing happened, so we both stood up to try and again, when suddenly VOOOOOMMM!!!! the tree went up in flames like a roman candle, flames shooting twenty feet into the air. A burst of heat washed over us, and looking down at my arms I realized that most of my arm hairs were gone.

    The tree only burned for about 3 minutes and then died, and after that I lost all interest in WD40 and flammable materials. But it is fun thinking about it.
      Warning: long true story follows

      So a friend of mine was set up with a blind date. He called the girl and offered to pick her up for the date. She agreed, and told him the name of the street she lived on. When he asked for her street address, she replied, "Don't worry. You'll know."

      I'd like to note that my internal danger warnings would have started flashing at this point.

      So the day rolls around for my friend to pick up his mysterious date. He's already running late, and when he gets to her street he finds a police roadblock set up. He calls her on his cell phone to let her know that he was running late because of the traffic situation, but there is no answer. He parks his car on the side of the street and heads out on foot to locate his date.

      What he finds is several police cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance. And a live electric line. And a pretty girl in handcuffs being led into a police car who happened to be his date.

      Apparently, after the girl told him that he'd know her house when he saw it, she got nervous and tried to come up with a way to identify her house and impress her date. She noticed the aging christmas tree in her front yard and decided to light it on fire around the time my friend was supposed to show up. The tree was rather tall, and leaning against a telephone pole. At 8pm she lit the tree with a match. The tree burst into flames, which lept high enough to catch the powerlines above her on fire, which consequently burned through and snapped. Her entire neighborhood was without power, and she was charged with arson.....

      The date was never made up.

      BlueLines

      Disclaimer: This post may contain inaccurate information, be habit forming, cause atomic warfare between peaceful countries, speed up male pattern baldness, interfere with your cable reception, exile you from certain third world countries, ruin your marriage, and generally spoil your day. No batteries included, no strings attached, your mileage may vary.
      One of my friends from high school threw a graduation party at his house complete with a fire. After it got going half way decently we tossed their dry dead christmas tree on there and it burned like nothing else. To this day whenever he tries to schedule a gettogether in the summers the first question he's asked is invariably whether we'll be burning a Christmas Tree.

      vroom | Tim Vroom | vroom@cs.hope.edu
        Thanks for that Vroom. Try though I might, I've never topped that first one. I'm pretty dissapointed that you missed the last one though. We'll try again next summer.
        Glad I'm not the only one who did this. I think I'll make it a yearly tradition to signal like the halfway point to Christmas. That would be fun...the Christmas Tree Burning. hehehehehehe
        That's also a Blacker Hovse New Year's tradition...
RE: My favorite flame retardant (bulldozer)
by ybiC (Prior) on Aug 10, 2000 at 00:31 UTC
    I can't vote.   My answer is unchanged from prior poll - bulldozer.
    Bbbbbbbbbbbbb, Rrrmmmm, Rrrmmmm!
       <dopey grin>
        ybiC
      Don't forget your hard hat and goggles :)
RE: My favorite flame retardant
by Adam (Vicar) on Aug 09, 2000 at 23:39 UTC
    Sometimes its good to just let the fire burn...

    ... unless of course you are the one on fire, then its time to go skinny dipping in the lake. (or ocean, or whatever you happen to have handy.)

RE: My favorite flame retardant
by turnstep (Parson) on Aug 10, 2000 at 01:50 UTC

    Hrmm...the previous poll had "sliding down a fire poll" as an answer, and now we are asked about extinguishing flames. Time to check the old insurance policy for the Monsatery, methinks. Unless their is something our Fearless Leader is not telling us?... :)

      Actually, I think between the polls and Shadow Conspiracies, Experience and General PM mayhem, vroom has pretty much said it all. Without intending to put words in his mouth, I think he's sick of the bickering, backstabbing, flamebaiting, and nailchewing going on around here.

      I think we should *all* take a clue, and let this matter drop. I know that I intend to. Should I find myself in a situation where a user needs "guidance", it's going to be done with /msg's and e-mail.

      Call me a total geek, or someone without a life, I don't give a damn. I like this place, and I don't want to see it torn apart by politics. I'm not faultless in this matter. I had my rounds fired in The Great Merlyn Escapade. But I'm going to try like to hell to put that type of thing behind me, and keep PM being the kind of place I like. (A place to talk Perl, solve problems, and meet chicks...)

      --Chris

      e-mail jcwren
Lack of Answers
by billyak (Friar) on Aug 11, 2000 at 02:23 UTC
    I know I shouldn't complain, but.. When ever I post to news groups, people always tell me I'd better wear my asbestos suit. ;)
That Erkel kid
by Mork29 (Scribe) on Aug 11, 2000 at 06:44 UTC
    He's kinda messed up... ohhhh retardANT hrm.... Well, i'd still like to watch him burn, he's really annoying. Remember him? I saw a re-run of that stupid show a few minutes ago and i still have all this rage inside of me from it...
Re: My favorite flame retardant
by SyN/AcK (Scribe) on Jul 30, 2003 at 23:17 UTC

    Seriously, where the hell is Carrot Top? I hate that prick. I'd love to up end him and use that flame red hair to put out a fire. "Dial down the middle mutha fucka!!!!"

    Muuuwwaaahahaa

      can u put out a fire with wipping cream? i bet you could but im not sure cause they use foam for putting out real fires so what about wipping cream? LOL im going to try it o every sunday at 10:30pm on global family guy is on watch it

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