A few years back, while I was living in an apartment on E Street in Derby, my then girlfriend (now wife) was preparing some popcorn the old school way.
It involved lots of cooking oil, a hot stove, a small pot and whatever the heck else people used before microwaves.
At some point, as I was sitting on the couch probably watching either “Celebrity Rehab” or “The Bad Girls Club,” Autumn made a funny noise. It was like a yelp you hear after stepping on a dog’s tail.
I turned around. She was holding a pot full of flames.
We stood there for a moment, staring at each other. Oh crap.
My immediate thought was to toss the flaming pot off my deck, which probably would have killed my downstairs neighbors.
Instead I took the pot and walked it slowly into our bathroom, where I doused it with bathwater and burned the hair off my wrists.
Long story short — I should have talked to Seymour Deputy Fire Marshal Timm Willis long before I signed a lease.
Willis knows fire prevention — and he knows how to deal with flames once they’re going.
On Thursday, Willis used a BullEx Intelligent Training System to show me how not to be a schmuck when it comes to small fires.
Later he instructed Seymour Town Hall employees. Click here to read our previous story on the BullEx equipment.
Click here to read the New Haven Register’s account of the Town Hall training.
The fire marshal’s office received an $8,000 grant from the Katherine Matthies Foundation to purchase the BullEx equipment. The Bank of America administers the grant.
The BullEx device is, essentially, a very high-tech propane grill.
It creates a controlled fire, which Willis used to show people how to handle a fire extinguisher.
Click the video above to see Willis show me how it works.
And, FYI — fire prevention week is coming up. Check out this blog for a ton of safety info.
