» Fire!

Mind your backs!
During my time at university, we were doing what most students do, watching Countdown and relaxing after a hard day in the library* (*see union bar)

It was during the Countdown Conundrum when behind us we heard a very loud WHOOSH! One of my flatmates - Matt - enjoyed deep fat frying his own chips and had inadvertantly left the hob on with a saucepan (full of vegetable fat) on top of it.

Somehow, whilst seeing this I remembered something of a fire talk we had and went to try and tackle the 2ft high flames coming from the pan. I had a fire blanket ready to put on top of the blaze, when all of a sudden, I hear the Words "MIND YOUR BACKS!"

My Irish mate Paul, then comes running into the kitchen with the fire extinguisher from the hall. He then unloads the said extinguisher into the pan.

Now, bearing in mind that I'm right next to the cooker and the fire extinguisher he has is a water one, I think i am extremely lucky not to be looking like a survivor from the Falklands.

The next thing I see is huge fireball rising out of the pan and scorching the ceiling within about a 2m radius.
The result of this fire-safety faux-pas was that my eyebrows only managed to get slightly singed and the rest of the flats being eveloped by a toxic black cloud smelling ever-so slightly of over-cooked potatoes
(Fri 4th Nov 2005, 13:58, More)