Fire Hazard

A blurry pic of my blistered leg (it is upside down, sorry).


The damage done to my good Gap pants.

Well, this is kind of embarrassing, but something definitely worth sharing. Yesterday (1/24/08) I arrived at my classroom to find that the heat was not working. It was a frigid 50 degrees and after having a short meeting with some teachers before school, my friend, Scott Olds (the science teacher) offered to bring over a hot plate (which is really just a single stove top burner) from his room that I could put over by my desk to at least have some warmth in the room. I accepted and decided to place the plugged in hot plate underneath my desk, in an effort to hide it from the fire marshal that was visiting our school that morning. I continued through the morning, teaching my first block class (US History and English combined--comprising two class periods). My students and I were wearing our coats as I taught for those first two hours of the day. When the bell rang for them to leave class, I went back to my desk and sat down to take attendance. All of the sudden, I couldn't believe how hot it was down there in such a short time. It felt like I was sitting right next to a campfire and my leg hairs were being singed (burnt, not singing songs). I quickly looked down and saw that my left pant leg was on fire! One of my students had walked in to place her books on her desk and I said, "Ashley, help me, I'm on fire!" She nonchalantly walked over to her desk and sat her stuff down and then looked back at me and yelled, "You really are on fire!" I wasn't quite sure how to put out the fire and especially stop it from spreading up my leg. I tried blowing on it, slapping at it with my hand, and stomping on it with my other foot. I even thought, "Stop, drop, and roll." Then I thought, "That won't really help with this fire around my ankle." My next thought was to drop my pants and step on it, but this didn't seem like such a good choice with a young female student in the room. So I continued to swat it with my hands, finally deciding I would just have to smother it with my hands. This was finally successful; however, it left me with a few blisters on my fingers and other blisters on my leg, only one of which is pretty serious.

My next concern was that I was going to set off the sprinkler system in my room and the fire alarm throughout the school. I could imagine what the news report would say, "Teacher lights own pants on fire and ruins school." I was able to open the windows and push the smoke out, leaving pant ash as I ran to the window. My student, Ashley, left for her next class after we had a good laugh and she had put out a small paper fire over by my desk by stomping on it (she had just come in to drop off her books before heading to orchestra). Five minutes later, when I was walking downstairs to report the incident to my principal, I walked past another student of mine who said, "So, I heard you set yourself on fire Mr. Fuller." It's amazing how fast news travels in a middle school. The rest of the day was spent with colleagues and students laughing until tears flowed or sides hurt. One teacher came in with her medical gloves and first aid kit in hand. The ribbing continued throughout the next day, as teachers used the incident to cheer up a dreary, cold January day. I received a fire-themed gift every class period from other teachers. By the end of the day, my desk was covered in flames, fire candies, fire engines, fire dogs, and a specially-made fire safety manual just for me. This is an experience that will always stay with me; I am pretty sure that I won't be able to escape it. I can picture them teasing me at my future retirement party, 25 years from now, still reminiscing about the time that Fuller lit his own pants on fire.


Here is a picture of my desk at the end of the day on Friday.