NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - 26

Dispatches Oddities
HUH?
RECENT HEAD-SCRATCHERS
FROM THE WORLD OF FIRE
AND LIFE SAFETY
ROCKET MAN
Because of concerns over fire safety,
most college dormitories prohibit residents
from having simple cooking
equipment like hot plates. Officials at
Brigham Young University may want to
add another potential firestarter to their
list of prohibited items: rocket fuel.
In February, firefighters responded
to a blaze inside a BYU housing complex
that was sparked by a 22-year-old
student who reportedly told authorities
he was trying to make rocket fuel.
" It was definitely poor judgment on
this person, " BYU Police Lieutenant
Jeff Long told CNN. " He didn't think
this through. "
According to news reports, the
student was attempting to make the
rocket fuel with about five pounds of
store-bought ingredients, which burst
into flames as he heated them on a
stove. The fire engulfed the cabinets
and ceiling above the stove, triggering
the building's fire sprinklers. Firefighters
arrived and put out what was left
of the fire. Nobody was injured in the
blaze, but two dozen of the dorm's residents
were displaced.
" Please keep your experiments in
the lab and supervised by trained professionals, "
the BYU Police Department
wrote in a Facebook post they titled
" Rocket Man. "
26 | NFPA JOURNAL * SUMMER 2022
SIREN SAUSAGE
In January, a dog named Millie eluded
rescuers for days. Each time the
3-year-old Jack Russell-Whippet mix
was spotted, she would quickly vanish
again into the marshy mud flats of
Hampshire, England. The situation
became dire when Millie was spotted
in an area that was expected to soon
flood from high tide.
Then a drone pilot with Denmead
Drone Search and Rescue, a nonprofit
pet rescue group, came up with the
unorthodox idea of luring Millie back
to safety with a salty snack. The rescuers
would tie a string to a freshly
grilled 2-ounce sausage link and, with
the other end of the string tied to a
drone, fly the sausage over Millie's
head, capturing her attention and
then, hopefully, leading her back to
rescuers.
The plan worked, and Millie was
safely returned to her owners.
" It was a crazy idea, " Chris Taylor,
chair of the pet search and rescue
group told reporters. " One of the local
residents on the beach where we were
flying from supplied us with the sausages.
I think they were from Aldi. The
woman cooked them up for us and we
attached them with string. "
" Lots of TLC " and rest were the only
things prescribed to nurse Millie back
to full health, Denmead Drone Search
and Rescue wrote in a Facebook post.
In addition to members of the nonprofit,
police and firefighters also
aided in the pup's rescue.
FROM THE NECK UP
The mannequins are at it again.
In February, firefighters in Bloomington,
Indiana, carefully made their way
across a frozen lake following reports
of a head sticking out of the ice. When
rescuers reached it, it did end up being
a head-just not a real one attached to
a real person. It was a plastic mannequin
head.
" Sometimes you never know what
type of call we might respond to, " officials
said, according to the Centre Daily
Times. " Thankfully this one turned out
to be nothing serious. "
Both the Fall and Winter 2021 issues
of NFPA Journal reported similar
" Oddities " incidents. In June 2021,
first responders in Japan rushed to the
scene of a naked woman reportedly
floating face down off the coast of
Hachinohe; it ended up being a very
life-like mannequin. In October, firefighters
in Santa Barbara, California,
only realized the woman clinging to
the side of a beachside cliff was in fact
a mannequin-a movie prop, to be precise-when
thermal imaging cameras
showed no heat radiating from the
woman's body.
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NFPA Journal - Summer 2022

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