500 lb. body causes fire at Henrico crematory

[underpants]

There have been incidents like this before at cremation companies all over the nation. But in 20 years of working here, the manager at Southside Cremation says it's never happened to them.

He says it happened as a result of the size of the body his workers were processing at the time. When it comes to handling obese bodies, extra steps are taken to ensure the cremation process goes smoothly. Jerry Hendrix says the worker took all the right steps -- but because this particular situation involved a 500 pound body, things took an unexpected turn.


"The body was so obese that the actual body fat came off and went straight up the sack and hit the roof material, the rubber roof we have up there and that's what made it go up like it did…It was no negligence involved in it. My guys, we did all we could. Once it started, the grease hit the roof and started the fire, the only thing we could do is dial 911 and get the fire department here,” Hendrix said.

http://www.nbc12.com/story/26737161/crews-battle-fire-at-henrico-crematory-off-mechanicsville-turnpike

[uppityperson]

1. oh my, words fail me.

How awful for them and my dark humor makes me stop now.

[Warpy]

6. When I pick visitors up at the airport,

I always point out the crematorium across the street from the BBQ restaurant.

[pinboy3niner]

7. ...accompanied with a creepy "muahahahahahaha" no doubt

[Initech]

9. You kill 'em, we grill 'em!

[Lars39]

11. "The secret's in the sauce"

Loved that line from Fried Green Tomatoes.
I know of a same-side-of-the-street crematorium-bbq place combo in Nashville. Crematorium built first, followed by the bbq place.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

12. I used to work in a building next door to one,

There was a sooty streak on the side of our building (seven stories tall), we called it Grandpa.

[pinboy3niner]

14. R.I.P. Grandpa

I shall hereby ab-stain from making further jokes. Well, okay...now. From NOW on I shall not besmirch Grandpa's memory. ...oops...okay, starting now...

[Burma Jones]

19. I used to live down the street from a Crematorium

We also had a huge commercial bakery a few blocks away.

So, you would sometimes smell a mix of burning meat and cinnamon buns at 8:00 AM.

[Aerows]

15. My dark humor

respects yours, and refrains, too.

[janlyn]

2. Stupid fire department!

Everybody knows, you don't put water on a grease fire!!

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. The building had a clogged artery.

That's different.

[Laffy Kat]

4. Gruesome.

I just had to click on it.

[Historic NY]

5. 500lb grease fire...

wow that must have smelled real good.

[Nye Bevan]

8. Sounds like that was one big-ass fire (nt)

[malaise]

10. I'm betting the size of that body caused problems in life

and clearly in death.

[Warpy]

13. It probably caused his death

Being 500 pounds is life threatening, usually from a cardiac event (if you're lucky) and an infected bed sore (if you're not).

[malaise]

17. For sure

but given the numbers on obesity, there will be many more bodies this size.

[Warpy]

18. I remember my first 300 pound patient

Nobody had seen anyone that size before. We had to take the poor guy down to the basement and weigh him on the linen scale because the one on the ward only went to 250.

When I left, there were usually more than two on the unit at any given time.

[Mister Nightowl]

16. Didn't even know Chris Christie was dead

New Jersey crematoria don't handle corpses weighing more than 400 pounds. (If only those above in this thread knew the power of the Dark Side!)

PS: Yep, I'm your father.

[KamaAina]

20. DUzy!