Bayonet Point Oxygen ?
Oh come on!
A Florida woman who started a fire in her office so she could get off work early has been jailed for nine months, the St Petersburg Times reports. Michelle Perrino, 40, of New Port Richey, executed her cunning plan on 12 May 2009, at Bayonet Point Oxygen. However, she subsequently blew it when she "mentioned the fire's origin …
You know, what really matters is whether there was bottled oxygen near the filing cabinet rather than whether the company sells oxygen or had "oxygen" in its name.
You sound a bit like one of those police or security types who might stop someone for being in possession of a picture of a gun somewhere in the vicinity of an airport. You can't be too careful where children might be involved ...
"...they've never heard of 'overkill' either (reminds me of that Merkin who tried to loosen a stubborn car wheelnut by shooting it with his shotgun, thus spraying himself with ricocheting buckshot at point-blank range...)"
My favourite is the attempt to remove the rotting whale carcass through the ingenious and subtle use of dynamite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbidGgVDdaI
Some years ago one would see, along about lunch time, unusually dense crowds milling around the NE corner of Connecticut Ave. and K St. NW in Washington, DC. These crowds had cleared out of building being searched for a bomb. Eventually the police found that some meathead would call in a bomb threat so that the building would be evacuated and his meathead friend could enjoy an unhurried lunch with him. Both got prison sentences.
Use common sense and read the damn article. It was in an *office* it didn't say that there was oxygen processing facilities present or even on the same site. It may be that the oxygen plant was on the same site in an entirely separate building, it may be that the plant was not even on the same site as the offices mentioned here. It may also be that they *resold* oxygen and said oxygen wasn't stored anywhere near the office as well.
It is idiotic to presume that just because they handle oxygen as a company that there would be oxygen present at an office, of which they may have more than one in multiple sites potentially for sales purposes.
.. it is only an oxidizer.
Fuels, like paper, wood, plastics, some metals, fine powders, some gases and petroleum products burn better w. additional oxygen or explode when in the right concentration with oxidizers.
You can't ignite oxygen so it won't explode and the gas bottles are designed to withstand typical fires w/o bursting.
Yes, oxygen isn't explosive, it just makes other things oxidize so rapidly, potentially explosively if not an instant inferno which when it comes to human survival is a similar effect given it is not an environment comprised of 100% oxygen.
Gas bottles may be designed to withstand typical fires, but what about atypical fires... like those enhanced by a high % oxygen environment? I certainly wouldn't want to be in the building to find out.