Monday, November 12, 2012

Doofus Of The Day #654


Today's should really be a Double Doofus award.  It goes to the crew of a firefighting helicopter in Australia.

A water-bombing helicopter has mistakenly sprayed partially treated sewage onto firefighters battling a blaze on the NSW mid-north coast.

. . .

An RFS spokesman said on Monday that a helicopter mistakenly drew up secondary treatment water from a sewage treatment plant.

It was then dropped near 12 firefighters, while another seven firefighters were in the general area.

"Following this, all 29 firefighters on the fireground and their equipment were immediately withdrawn and decontaminated by Fire and Rescue NSW," the spokesman said.

They were also checked by paramedics at the scene and as a precaution each firefighter was given a further medical check the following day, he said.

"At this time, no firefighters have complained of any ill-effects."

There's more at the link.

OK, the first award is for picking up sewage instead of plain water, and the second is for dumping it on the firefighters!  They may not have "complained of any ill-effects", but I'm willing to bet more than a few Aussie beers that they had a few other complaints - and that they voiced them loudly and very clearly!



Peter

4 comments:

Stuart Garfath said...

Is this an ill-thought out piece of 'lateral thinking'?, putting out the fire and fertilizing the affected area at the same time.
Interesting concept.

Anonymous said...

If I were the pilot, I would think long & hard before accepting the invitation to this years Christmas barbie....!

MSgt B said...

I'll bet that helo crew is buying a lot of beer...

TheAxe said...

Looks like someone won't make employee of the month.