If you have a citronella candle that has burned down, do not under any circumstances attempt to refill it with citronella oil when a replacement candle proves impossible to find. If you do, it will burn just fine the first few times but once the wick has burned down (impossible to see while it's burning) it will suddenly erupt into a towering inferno of flame at least 18 inches high! When your friend panics and pours hot water from the kettle on it (BAD idea - never ever pour water on an oil fire!) it will sizzle and spatter like a thing possessed. Once the flame is finally put out, you will still have boiling oil, that remains quite literally boiling for over an hour afterwards. And then, when it's all over, you will be left with this:
.
And believe me, you don't want that.
Stop by Rocks in My Dryer for more helpful hints.
12 comments:
Do you really expect us to believe that Robin? It's so obvious that you did this just for a Project Black post. I'm just upset I didn't think of it first. :)
Ooh...um...yeah. I'll have to remember that. Either that or have the marshmallows ready for the inferno. ;) Glad you're ok!
sounds like excellent advice that i plan to follow;-)
Wow I had no idea that it would do that. Great tip!
I'm terrible with candles inside and outside of the house so I keep a bucket of sand near the fire outside and a fire extinguisher inside.
Day-um!
Get yourself a fire blanket babe. Please?
YIKES!! I think I might have panicked and thrown water on the fire as well. I like queenoftheclick's idea about keeping a bucket of sand nearby. Glad you all are okay!!
I am staring open mouthed after reading your post. Yikes is RIGHT!
Fire scares me. I know you're not supposed to pour water on an oil fire but I think I would forget in the heat of the moment.
No pun intended.
I for one am glad you still have your eyebrows and your home! How scary. I'm pretty sure that while the oil was cooling I'd have been in changing my pants ....
I was taught that animals either fight, take flight, or freeze when threatened. As we are mammals and also animals, turns out we behave the same way. A very reliable source told me that the friend who put out the fire fought, one friend took flight, and the rest froze.....and a few screamed "don't pour water on burning oil".
LOL. Your source is definitely a reliable one Gilit ;-).
And yes, I'm one of the ones who stood there screaming "don't pour water on an oil fire!"
I know that it was probably not funny but I couldn't not help but laughing.
I also couldn't help but tell the computer page, "don't put water on burning oil!"
This is very interesting. I'm going to do a post linking to yours to help inform everyone. This could be very dangerous.
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