Florida woman evicted over massive toy collection

WSFA ^ | 05/27/2017

[Taxman]

LOL!

[fireman15]

Okay, maybe one or two stuffed animals would not be dangerous in the event of a fire. However, if hundreds of these were exposed to fire and producing noxious fumes, what kind of situation would people be facing?

First, I am just a guy who worked as a firefighter on a "big city" fire department and was promoted to a supervisory role part way through my career. I received training in fire inspections and fire safety. I taught classes fire safety and fire inspection. I was one of the leaders on our hazmat team and was responsible for hazmat training on my shift. I went to a lot of incidents and helped care for a lot of victims over the years and up until the day that I retired. But I want to be clear that I am not an expert on stuffed animals. LOL

It could probably be argued that a bunch of water soaked fire retardant stuffed animals thrown at the base of fire could be an effective firefighting technique under certain circumstances. So it might be argued that this collection actually makes the lady's apartment safer than a similar apartment not equipped with an adequate supply of stuffed animals.

Anything burning in an enclosed area is dangerous and nearly all substances produce some type of noxious fumes during combustion. The question is how much more dangerous is it to add a few hundred pounds of stuffed animals that most likely are nearly all in compliance with stringent federal regulations for children's toys.

In my opinion under most circumstances a stuffed animal collection would not make the room any more dangerous than adding a similar weight of other items that are difficult to start on fire and less dangerous than room filled with a similar weight of objects that are fairly easy to start on fire such as the typical furnishings we find in apartments or houses.

I am retired now, but I went to thousands of house and apartment fires during my career. Rooms full of stuffed animals never created a difficult situation for me or my crews during my career. And I never responded to a fire where stuffed animals were considered to be partially responsible for causing a fire. I also never went to a fire where stuffed animals were implicated in creating an atmosphere more dangerous than any other room that was on fire.

It is certainly possible to imagine situations where a hazardous condition could occur because of excessive stuffed animals. If an electric baseboard heater was covered with stuffed animals or a blanket and the safety mechanism failed it could certainly cause a fire or a hazardous atmosphere. If a room was filled to the ceiling with stuffed animals it could make it more difficult for residents to evacuate and more difficult to find a victim. Neither of these scenarios was evident in this situation.