Terror in smurfville!
This season we have had a couple all hands safety meetings. Little did we realize that the all hands safety meetings are really just a way to channel the Oracle of Delphi to Antarctica. After we had our first meeting on accidents, two bull dozers broke through the ice near the smurf shack later that day. On the way to assist them, a haglund vehicle rolled on its side. Luckily, there were no major injuries.
On Monday, we had another all hands safety meeting to talk about the dangers of fire on base. It was the usual type of safety meeting that wasn't that exciting. After this more recent safety meeting, a call came into the firehouse around 10:30am that the smurf shack had caught fire. The smurf shack is used as a warming hut at the runways. It has a heater, couch, chairs, computer, microwave, hot water heater, and a few other amenities.
The smurf shack.
The fire was over fifteen miles from town, but once it got going we had no problem seeing it. Unfortunately, because Antarctica is so dry anytime something lights on fire it goes up quickly.
The smurf shack fire from town.
As expected, the smurf shack was a total loss. We are already receiving daily safety messages about fire danger. I just took a fire extinguisher class. Hopefully, that won't come in handy later this year. It was pretty neat though. That might be my first time ever using a real fire extinguisher. I'm curious what more this season has in store or us, but I guess I can just wait for the next all hands safety meeting to find out.
I'll be curious to find out why the shack went up. Historically, most of our fires seem to be caused by bad electrical wiring, but I might go with arson for this one. The computer tech had a work order out there and might have wanted a quick way to get it taken care of.
The disappearing smurf hut, now you see it, now you don't.
