Lorri Ferguson wrote:
I think the biggest problem with the synthetics (nylon in particular) is that
it melts and sticks to the skin causing a much deeper burn. I can't cite a
source but that is what I have heard.
I once bought a hand-woven potholder from a child who was
peddling them door-to-door. Potholder looms were still a
common toy at the time, but it would appear that they no
longer came with the cotton-jersey loops that I had used
when I was a child -- when the potholder brushed over a hot
burner and caught fire, I discovered that it was some sort
of synthetic. One of the flaming globs landed on my thumb.
I ran cold water on it at once, which chilled it right
down, but though the white spot was tiny, it ran very deep
and I spent several weeks thinking it had been a
third-degree burn. Luckily, it had landed on the thickest
skin on my hands, so there were enough live cells down at
the bottom that the skin eventually regenerated.
Ever since, I've had a phobia against letting synthetics get
anywhere near fire. It didn't help any that I once knocked
an iron off the ironing board onto the bed and got, in less
time than I believed possible, a brown iron-shaped mark on a
70%-wool, 30%-nylon blanket.
At this time I remembered reading, in an article about
cleaning up oil slicks, that it is very difficult to make
a liquid keep burning UNLESS YOU HAVE A WICK. This left me
very fearful of synthetics blended with fibers that aren't
ordinarily a fire hazard.
I have set fire to cotton dish towels on several occasions,
and I've burned holes in linen towels. The linen never
blazed up -- possibly because none of my linen towels ever
had fringes (and nowadays, neither do my cotton towels!) --
and burning cotton is very easy to put out. You can beat it
out with your bare hands, or shake the fire off like dirt --
even if you panic and throw the flaming towel, the fire gets
blown out.
Throwing a pan of blazing bacon, on the other hand -- I once
brought coffee to the firemen trying to put out the
aftermath of *that*. It wouldn't have been so bad if the
the pan of blazing grease hadn't landed in a sink filled
with water. The grease spattered in all directions,
starting fires in several places. I wasn't called until
long after any ambulances would have come and gone, but I
don't *think* that the spatters hit any people.
--
Joy Beeson
http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/
http://n3f.home.comcast.net/ -- Writers' Exchange
http://www.timeswrsw.com/craig/cam/ (local weather)
west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.
where it's unseasonably warm -- the low will be 44F/7C.
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