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Irregular News for 07.20.06
City firefighters extinguished an appliance fire early Tuesday after a South Scranton man attempted to clean his washing machine with gasoline, officials said.
Just after 4 a.m., Gerard Dougher, 54, of 2610 S. Webster Ave., was apparently trying to get rid of a sticky substance in the drum of his washing machine, possibly a pack a bubble gum, when he thought it would be a good idea to rinse it out with gasoline, Assistant Fire Chief Jeff White said.
He cleaned the interior with fuel and ran it through a cycle before it started to smoke.
“No sooner after he put it in, he smelled gas and thought, ‘That was a pretty stupid thing to do,’ ” Assistant Chief White said.
The machine overheated and subsequently caught fire.
Mr. Dougher’s wife, Deborah, awoke to smoke alarms. She went to the basement and saw her husband near the washing machine, which was in flames.
Mrs. Dougher and the couple’s 13-year-old daughter left the house. Officer Thomas McDonald responded and told Mr. Dougher to leave.
No injuries were reported.
Firefighters hauled the machine out of the house, where the fire was extinguished.
“The inside of a washing machine should never be cleaned with anything flammable at all,” Scranton Fire Capt. Ed Gallagher said.
In his 25 years as a firefighter, Capt. Gallagher said he’s never seen a fire start like that.
“Sometimes we don’t know why people do things,” he said. “People just forget for a moment’s notice. It’s honest human error.” Mr. Dougher declined comment.
source
City firefighters extinguished an appliance fire early Tuesday after a South Scranton man attempted to clean his washing machine with gasoline, officials said.
Just after 4 a.m., Gerard Dougher, 54, of 2610 S. Webster Ave., was apparently trying to get rid of a sticky substance in the drum of his washing machine, possibly a pack a bubble gum, when he thought it would be a good idea to rinse it out with gasoline, Assistant Fire Chief Jeff White said.
He cleaned the interior with fuel and ran it through a cycle before it started to smoke.
“No sooner after he put it in, he smelled gas and thought, ‘That was a pretty stupid thing to do,’ ” Assistant Chief White said.
The machine overheated and subsequently caught fire.
Mr. Dougher’s wife, Deborah, awoke to smoke alarms. She went to the basement and saw her husband near the washing machine, which was in flames.
Mrs. Dougher and the couple’s 13-year-old daughter left the house. Officer Thomas McDonald responded and told Mr. Dougher to leave.
No injuries were reported.
Firefighters hauled the machine out of the house, where the fire was extinguished.
“The inside of a washing machine should never be cleaned with anything flammable at all,” Scranton Fire Capt. Ed Gallagher said.
In his 25 years as a firefighter, Capt. Gallagher said he’s never seen a fire start like that.
“Sometimes we don’t know why people do things,” he said. “People just forget for a moment’s notice. It’s honest human error.” Mr. Dougher declined comment.
source
