Dec. 25, 2011

Hands Burned while repairing car

I grew up on a farm and attribute that to the fact that I can do a lot of what might be termed as Handy Man things. Dad was always repairing things and I can never remember him ever having anyone come in and do anything for him. He could do plumbing, building, and even repair the farm equipment as needed. He could weld anything that needed welding and repair anything that needed repairing especially if Harold Spencer was there. He was our neighbor and he and dad did a lot of the farm work on both farms together.  I also learned a lot due to scouting as I had to earn the Home Repair merit badge as it was required then and also had numerous other things that we would learn to do while in scouts. SO with that preface it is no wonder that I would always try to repair our cars until I knew it was out of my range of ability and I would then take it to Max to repair. Well I was working on one of our cars in early April when there was still snow on the ground. I had taken out the carberator and cleaned all of the parts and put it back together. I was doing it in the garage since it was a little warmer in there than outside. Well it still got quite cold so I took a small open flame heater and put it on the step at the front of the garage for a little heat. I installed the part back into the engine and then added some gas to the tank at the back of the garage by where the door was completely open while I did it. AS I was pouring the gas into the tank from the 5 gallon container I suddenly saw a flame racing toward me from the front by the heater. I quickly took the can out onto the lawn spilling some of it on the bumper of the car. I raced into the house and grabbed the fire extinguishers and told Marie to call the fire department and then went out and put out the flames. I used up three small fire extinguishers and finally grabbed the hose to put out one small flame still burning under the car. I rested my hands on the bumper and found out real fast that it had burned more than I thought and was real hot and thus burned both palms of my hands. Wynn Everett and the small fire truck arrived about then and found that I had the fire out and under control and told me I had done it correctly. Later as I talked to Max about it he told me that now I knew why heaters in garages were all hung from the ceiling since gas is heavier than air and the fumes will travel along the floor to the nearest ignition source. I learned a valuable lesson that day and soon closed in the garage and made a den, storage room, and shop out of it instead. There is still black soot that remains from that fire as a reminder of my lesson that day.

 The next day as I went to church both of my hands were wrapped in large white bandages as I had burned them fairly severe. I was also the one conducting the meetings and so I would take my day planner to the podium with it resting open on my hands since I couldn’t really open it all that well otherwise since my hands just looked like to big insect cocoons. It was a lesson I will never forget.