“Hey man, hold my beer and watch this” just got a lot scarier thanks to firms selling flamethrowers to the general public. The founder of one firm racks off a few “practical applications” like clearing brush, but says they are really for entertainment and fun.
In my job, I come across a lot of really dumb crap, but this is among the top of the heap.
A few weeks ago, I interviewed Austin Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr for the next issue of Fire Chief. It comes out next week. As the new International Association of Fire Chiefs president, Chief Kerr told me she will push for zero fire fatalities.
She realizes it is likely an unachievable goal. Yet, she also recognizes that striving for it makes a lot of good things happen along the way — like better fire prevention through education and engineering.
Putting a handheld device that shoots flames as far as 50 feet in the hands of any knucklehead with an extra $1,000 to spend on entertainment is a huge set back in reaching that zero-fatality goal.
There is some good news here. First is the price tag. At $1,000 to $1,600 a pop, it should be out of reach for at least some of the population. However, if sales catch fire and competition enters the arena, prices will surely fall — God help us if Wal-Mart starts selling them.
Second is a move in one Michigan city to ban these personal flamethrowers. Warren Mayor Jim Fouts told the Detroit Free Press, “I’m very concerned about it. It’s very dangerous in a lot of situations. The pain and death it could impose is overwhelming.”
And you thought city halls were full of morons.
Then the Warren council said the flamethrowers were not an immediate threat and tabled it. Never mind the previous remark about morons.
Maryland and California have some restrictions or outright bans. The rest of the states appear up for grabs. It will be interesting to see if open-burn bans can be applied to these.
Listening to the owner of one company talk about why people should be allowed to own his flamethrowers, even if only for entertainment, reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live skit that popped up each Christmas. You remember, it was the one where Dan Aykroyd would play a smarmy toy maker hawking things like bags of broken glass as great gifts for the kiddies.
The serious side, or course, is that these flamethrowers will inevitably fall in the hands of 12-year-old boys who will set wildland fires, burn their houses down and probably set their friends or themselves on fire.
As an aside, flamethrowers for military purposes were banned as part of the Geneva Convention and the U.S. military stopped their use after the Vietnam War.
I’m not a huge fan of more regulations and more laws. But there are times when legislation is needed to stop stupid people with stupid toys. Entertainment-purpose flamethrowers raise the risk to firefighters, innocent bystanders and even the “hold my beer” guys — and there ought to be a law against that.
