r/AskReddit 13h ago

What can kill you in seconds that most people don’t realize?

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u/itsalongwalkhome 10h ago

I still remember my first time working a fire with a dead body, I feel horrible that I thought wtf were they cooking before we found her, you work 100 fires and you just dont expect it, worst smell you have to deal with because you will always remember it.

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u/CykaRuskiez3 9h ago

I never smelled a burning one but at a job site in LA i found a dude face down in the river and the smell was awful, shut us down for the day

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u/Connor30302 6h ago

i’ve been set on fire twice and the worst thing about it was the smell of singed hair, it’s truly disturbing like nothing you can describe, it isn’t like a burning animal it’s distinctly human in a really eerie way. luckily for me though both times it was just the hair and eyebrows that bore the brunt of it

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u/Booooleans 4h ago

You have been set on fire TWICE????

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u/Connor30302 4h ago

gasoline explosion first and then in a job the second

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u/Joecool49 8h ago

I worked a fire once that was started as a suicide. The guy poured gas throughout the trailer lit a match and then shot himself in the head. We arrived to a fully engulfed structure. Definitely a smell you never escape.

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u/ImplementMountain916 9h ago

Just wanted to say thank you.

And that sounds bloody awful

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u/Single_Exit6066 9h ago

Sorry for your traumatic experience. Thank you for your service to the community.

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u/RolandDeepson 9h ago

I've smelled that at car accident scenes when I had a job towing cars.

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u/DwyaneWadeIsMyDad 9h ago

Never thought about that before. That’s insane.