'Overly obese' body sparks Ohio funeral home fire
A crematorium in Ohio caught fire while burning the remains of an "overly obese" body, according to the owner.
Don Catchen said the corpse caused flames to engulf one of his units in the city of Cincinnati.
The fat in the body burned at a higher temperature, prompting the blaze, said the city fire chief.
The blog Confessions of a Funeral Director describes a blaze resulting from the cremation of a morbidly obese person as a "grease fire" .
No other parts of the building were damaged, Mr Catchen said.
The fire was contained to the garage where the crematory unit is located, he told BBC News.
The fire began at 21:40 (01:40 GMT) on Wednesday and took about two hours to put out, Mr Catchen told local news outlet WCPO .
"My operator was in the process of cremating remains and [the body] was overly obese and apparently it got a little hotter than the unit is supposed to get," Mr Catchen added.
"One of the cremation containers that we had close got caught on fire and that's what burnt."
No other bodies were damaged in the fire, he said.
"We believe there were some combustible storage boxes that were too close to the ovens," said Cincinnati Fire Chief Michael Washington.
Mr Catchen added the fireproof unit is made of concrete block with a steel roof, but also has a rubberised roof.
A similar blaze at a Virginia facility in October 2014 occurred during the cremation of a 500lb (226kg) body.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39735904
Tags
Who is online
81 visitors
The blog Confessions of a Funeral Director describes a blaze resulting from the cremation of a morbidly obese person as a "grease fire" .
Well then all they needed was a really, really, really, really big box of baking soda or flour.
Safety tip: Never pour water on a grease fire!
Oh and that also reminds me...No More CHEESECAKE!!!
That's just gross !!!
Yes, but funny! It's like something out of a Monty Python skit! Besides if the late night shows here about it it'll be comedy gold!
You know when they cremate someone and I'm planing on being cremated, they have to flip the body over halfway through the process to make sure it's cremated completely. I wonder what size of pancake flipper they were planning on using on this one? Or does the machine do it for them?
LOL.. when I read it came from the BBC.
The Brits have an obsession with spontaneous combustion, and often it has a morbidly obese person involved. In fact, the science is there for why this happens. As the body decomposes, it lets off methane, which of course is combustible. Then the fat acts like a fuel. The bigger the body, the more gas, and fat, the more likely a fire.
Fun facts from Perrie.
I have read about people spontaneously combusting. Where they just seemingly go up in flames for no apparent reason. There was a case up in the U.P. in Michigan where an apparently living person sitting in his chair watching TV went up in flames (leaving one foot) but the clothes were not burned.
As the body decomposes, it lets off methane, which of course is combustible. Then the fat acts like a fuel. The bigger the body, the more gas, and fat, the more likely a fire.
Midnight snack: Hurled
If the midnight snack was a double bean Burrito, Sister, then later tonight you will be letting off some flammable gas of your own, so make sure you don't have any candles left burning at the alter after evening prayers, or the local crematorium will be wonder about what temp to set for you. Just concerned for your safety, Sister.
Now of course most people trim away the fat before grilling a piece of meat like this so it is "lean" (and tasteless of course (pussies)). However many people like to leave some of it to protect the flavor. I know I do. That is why when checking a good piece of meat you should always look for one that is nicely "marbled" with lots of good fat running between the meat to be sure that, if prepared in a broiler, on an outside grill (and remember real men use charcoal or wood and not gas or propane (pussies)) or even in a crematorium you can expect truly satisfying results.
Yet too much fat is always bad as it may just catch fire during cooking no matter what method you use, especially open pit! Keep large sacks of flour handy to put it out asshole!
From a link in the article:
And so we have this out of Austria: