teki torche fire

Just a word of caution about teki torches. I had a few lashed to my deck. I started with 4 metal tanks and bought 6 from Walmart that had plastic tanks. Monday night the boys and I had taken a night swim under the stars and with the torches aglow. After about 30 minutes I raised my head out of the water hearing a muffled boom. One of the plastic tanked torches had exploded on the far end of the deck away from the pool. The boys heard me scream “OH #$@” and head for the ladder. The oldest said I out of the pool not even hitting the steps, ran past the fire, turned on the hose, grabbed for the end of the hose, made it half way back to the pool and was stopped dead in my tracks. Dawn (future wife) had parked her jeep on the hose. This whole time I am wet barefoot on coarse gravel (ouch) and jerking on my hose (no wise cracks) yelling at the boys to grab a fire extinguisher. The boys are standing there with panic on their faces and the youngest yells “FIRE”. Little late I think as I duck in the house and grab a mixing bowl. I run back out side across the gravel (*&%$) to the pool and dip bowl back across gravel (^&%^) and toss on fire. After a few trips more from pool across gravel (@#%$) to the deck the fire is out. All the commotion wakes Dawn up who comes strolling out and ask what is the smell? The next morning after Dawn left for work I went out and grabbed the hose curled it up so she can’t park the jeep on it again and removed the torches. So now I have about 3 foot of railing to replace due to the fire. I will post pics tomorrow if any one wants to see them.
Steve

Tiki torches are so dangerous! I was at a party years ago and some guy in a long sleeve shirt caught his shirt arm on fire. The people there threw him in the pool but he still had severe burns on his arm. Seeing someone on fire in real life is not the same as on TV. For a few seconds this guy had ran around and the fire was making its way to his head. There were quite a few people around to help him but they had to get him stopped without catching on fire themselves. The smart thing to do would have been to get him on the ground but they were kids who had been drinking.

I am glad that you are ok and that the damage you suffered was to replaceable objects. Thanks for sharing your story.

Here is a pic of the damage. I am happy no one was burnt. The deck can and will be repaired hard to replace family.

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4...pics004aq5.jpg
Steve

Wow!! :eek:

I'm glad it turned out "OK".....

Yes, me too. I think I have the plastic ones too. They are all away from the deck though. I wonder if this is a common thing, could be grounds for a mass lawsuit. Did you let the wick burn down too far maybe? I don't see how else it could have happened. Sort of a Malatov Cocktail...

Steve,

I'm glad it was only minor compared to what could have been.. But I have to be honest and tell you I was chuckling reading your story .. How could I ? Well...I had a situation SO similar , I bet we used the same expletives..

fire starts = Oh !@#$#!%

run for hose over gravel

Hose wont reach

etc etc

I can most definately relate. just thought I'd share

That is like the Pella window commercial where the blinds are in the window. The guy outside knocks the grill over, and it starts on fire, he runs for the hos and as he starts to spray it it stops cuz it is off. Then the grill explodes, flies in the air, and lands behind him on the doghouse. All the while the dog is running around all excited, and the women looking at the blinds in the window don't even notice.

In hind sight it was kinda funny. I was snickering when I wrote that. The oldest boy was laughing so hard at me after every thing calmed down. He said ever thing was in kinda in slow motion and watching me freak out was funny. I am a big guy and I never touched the steps on the way out according to him. I look at as a lesson learned. The only real after effect is my aching feet. I work nights and am on my feet most of the night. I have sore spots on both feet and I am limping around like a lame horse. I have been half expecting the other staff to shoot me and put me out of my misery.:eek:
Steve

We had a WalMart tiki torch incident too - it was one of the ones with the plastic clear tank, all wrapped in rattan or wicker or something. Very flammable. We have terrible mosquitoes and they seemed to help. Especially when one erupted one evening. Tiki juice and flames all over the pavers. Luckily no one was hurt! 'Cept the tiki, that is.

We had a similar experience! We caught ours though before it exploded! The rattan wicker ones Kirsten mentions above. We took em back! Scorched and all, and bought the metal ones.
Di

There are plenty of Tiki Torches on recall.
You can go to the United States Consumer Products Safety Commission to find if yours has been recalled. The web site is :
http://www.cpsc.gov/

Type in Tiki torches in the search box.
Remeber it is Tiki not Teki.
:)