I will never forget the impression made on us while attending a kid’s safety expo at city hall one year. During a fire safety presentation, a sad story was shown to us about a mishap while trying to remove sheet vinyl flooring.
Let’s Call Him Bob
There was a worker, let’s call him Bob, who was in a house which was being prepared for renovations. His job was to remove the vinyl flooring from the kitchen. The flooring was stubbornly stuck to the subfloor and was not cooperating with removal. After working on it for quite a while, he called his boss for suggestions.
His boss had a suggestion which he said works great. The boss told him to pour generous quantities of solvent across the entire floor, wait for half an hour or so for the solvent to work in, and then the floor should peel right off.
Bob followed his boss’s suggestion and poured solvent all over the floor. He waited for a while for it to soak in. I believe it was spring when this took place, and all was going well until something went terribly wrong. Because it was cool outside, the furnace kicked in. And once the furnace kicked in and heated up, as soon as the fan started going and circulated the air, the air containing a large quantity of solvent fumes were sucked into the furnace and immediately ignited which sparked a huge explosion throughout the house.
The fumes were very flammable and the large amounts which had evaporated turned the whole area into a bomb waiting to go off. If the furnace hadn’t gone off, Bob could have been ok. But as it was he suffered major burns to large areas of his body. It was really a miracle that he survived at all. He lost his ears, his nose, parts of his eyelids and damaged many other parts of his body.
His face is very deformed and life is difficult in many ways for him. He lives with pain every day. One of the ways he has turned what happened to him into something positive is by talking to kids about fire safety. He managed to take something very terrible and make some good of it. Believe me; he leaves an impression not easily forgotten. He has made a difference in the lives of many through his story.
Learn from the experiences of others; use solvents and other chemicals carefully. Whether you are removing vinyl floors or doing another home renovation task; thoroughly read all instructions that come with products you buy and take every precaution necessary to ensure the safety of yourself and others around you. The little bit of extra time you spend in prevention will be well worth it.