Monday, February 1, 2010

There's A Reason Cops Are Not Firefighters

A couple of days ago a 26 year old man in Portland decided to torch himself. He poured gasoline all over himself and then ignited the fumes. Luckily, there was a Portland police officer just down the street. The officer saw the flames and smoke and quickly drove over to render assistance (furthering the idea that all cops want to be firefighters). The would be rescuer went to the trunk and grabbed the fire extinguisher. The officer then sprayed the human torch who tried to avoid the extinguisher. This might be why. The officer, instead of grabbing the fire extinguisher, grabbed the over sized bottle of pepper spray used for riot control. It is the same color and similar in size. It's water based so it didn't fan the flames but I'm sure it started a whole new type of burning. Unfortunately the man died later on in the hospital. I know I shouldn't find this funny but I really do. Here's the story as told by KGW news in Portland.
 
Here are pictures of both a 2 1/2 pound fire extinguisher and a large bottle of pepper spray (I don't know what types of either the police department uses.

5 comments:

  1. I agree with Hyrdant Girl, Wow! But I do think you deserve a pass on finding this funny, I mean after all the did set himself on fire.

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  2. holy shamole! I'll bet the poor guy didn't think he could be in any more pain!

    I could see where those bottles could get confused. Seems like someone needs to get new packaging if they want PD to use their product.

    Love your comment about cops wanting to be firefighters :)

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  3. Firefighters kick back in Barcaloungers and work out when they are not getting any calls (when they do get calls I know they work hard!). They get paid to sleep. They don't get shot at. Of course cops want to be firefighters!

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  4. Chancemom, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. And, in general, the public likes us!

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