Posted on 07/17/2014 6:56:35 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Man sets house afire trying to kill spider with lighter, spray paint
SEATTLE -- Fire officials say a West Seattle man was using a lighter and a can of spray paint to kill a spider in his laundry room when the house went up in flames.
Fire crews were called to a home in the 10200 block of 34th Avenue SW just before 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Firefighters originally battled the blaze from a distance after learning there may be ammunition inside. Crews were eventually able to extinguish the fire, but not before it did significant damage to the structure.
A man who lived at the home told fire officials he was trying to kill a spider in his laundry room using a can of spray paint and a lighter when the wall caught fire, according to Kyle Moore with the Seattle Fire Department. The man wasn't able to put the fire out himself, and he left the home when it began to spread.
"I don't want to encourage people to do this, but that's what he did," Moore said. "The spider tried to get into the wall. He sprayed flames on the wall, lit the wall on fire, and that extended up to the ceiling."
The man initially tried to put water on the fire, but he wasn't able to put it out and the blaze spread quickly spread into the attic.
"There are safer, more effective ways to kill a spider than using fire," Moore said. "Fire is not the method to use to kill a spider."
(Excerpt) Read more at komonews.com ...
For those pesky pests and rodents I prefer to use a professional ... that's why I use Penelope's Pest Control.
Did somebody say fire?!? Ping
He couldn’t just squish it? What a wimp. My 5-year-old can squish a bug.
There’s something strange in the air in Seattle.
Pic with “Terminator 3” bad robot coming in 3, 2, 1...
“There’s something strange in the air in Seattle.”
Yep, it’s called Air de Fukushima.
I wonder who he voted for in 2012.
....But did he get the spider? Did he burn up real good like?
He was overheard saying “Look, he’s crawling up my wall. Black and hairy, very small. Now he’s up above my head.”
It’s what happens when you’re stoned. You think amazingly stupid ideas are brilliant.
I’d NEVER hurt a spider. The more skeeters and biting flies they eat, the better.
Snakes or ‘Gators? Now, THAT’S another story - ‘Cuz you can eat ‘em after they’re cooked! :)
Darwin Award candidate.
Washington State = Legal pot.
Mix in headline/story.
Any connection?
Nah.
Coming soon to a neighborhood near you: Mandatory blood samples if you suffer a major property loss or are involved in an event injurious to others (liability).
Induced stupidity.
Well...I take that back. The stupidity could have been hereditary due to stupid people breeding.
Perhaps ‘enhanced’ stupidity...
Yes, I’m with you. Why kill a spider, especially in the basement, when it is busy trapping flies and mosquitoes?
More likely pot, I think.
Someone did the same in Florida for cockroaches (the non Democratic kind)
When I was seven years old, I tried to crawl through a drainage pipe that went under a road. I could see the other side, so I thought it would be neat.
I wiggled my way in, and was about 15 feet in when I suddenly noticed the pipe was getting narrower. Next thing I knew, I couldn’t budge forward, and could only wiggle slightly backward.
I was lying on leaves, twigs and junk, arms out in front of me, and turned my head to say something to my older brother who was standing outside, when I saw that a huge cobweb and got squished all over my neck and shoulder.
And stuck right in it, was a big, huge, Daddy Longlegs. Just like the one on the Johnny Quest cartoon. Staring at me, with that single (I thought) eye.
That pipe immediately became skin-tight and I began to scream and wiggle in a most horrible fashion. Somehow, my brother wiggled in behind me, grabbed me by the ankles and pulled me out.
Next thing I knew, I was running down the middle of a residential street, screaming loudly, jumping in the air and twirling in a way that would have made a professional figure skater jealous, all the while beating my head and shoulders madly.
Every single time I glanced back, like a dog with tin cans tied to its tail, that Daddy Longlegs was still there...bouncing around, just within my field of view.
My brother got it off me, and even though I do not remember how I knew, I somehow found out that damned Daddy Longlegs was a corpse stuck in the web. It was one of my most frightening childhood experiences.
To this day, I harbor an irrational fear when I feel or see one on my body. I cannot kill them...they ARE interesting, and I find them fascinating, but...they still bring out some kind of primal fear in my gut, if even for a fleeting fraction of a second if one is on me.
Another time, I was driving down the road at night, and...a little itty bitty spider begins to lower itself from the ceiling of my car...right...in front of my nose.
So here I am, driving down a twisty New England road doing about 45 mph, at night, and I am completely fixated on this spider about three inches from the front of my face...inching slowly down towards my crotch.
I cannot take my eyes off of it for a second to look at the road. Just as I was coming to grips with the situation, doesn’t the damn thing just DROP and disappear into my lap.
I damn near wrecked my car. But I always wondered how my face looked to the spider...kind of fisheye distorted, bug eyed and crosseyed, with a great gaping black mouth slowly opening to reveal a waving uvula at the back of my throat as I yelled.
And all this isn’t because I am squeamish...I lived in the Philippines, and they had dang near every variety of bizzare huge beetle with enormous mandibles like Tiger Beetles, Rhinocerous Beetles, and the prized and rare, Ox Beetles. They had lizards, geckos, snakes, monkeys, boars, monitor lizards and God knows what else...but it was only the spiders that freaked me out.
BTW...I DO know Daddy Longlegs aren’t really spiders, and I DO know they are completely beneficial and harmless, but...still scary to me.
This is the opposite of ‘bringing a knife to a gunfight’. This is like bringing a thermonuclear device to a card game.
Everybody knows you are supposed to use a lighter and hairspray.
LOL. My mother once sprayed a wolf spider with Lysol and the arachnid wasn’t even phased. It was outside so we didn’t have to set it on fire. It just stood there staring at my mother until she blasted it away with the garden hose.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.