DannyBoyinExile

Just about every day, SOMETHING will come up that brings some excitement or entertainment to an otherwise boring day. This morning’s example was a hot pot fire.
It’s not often for fires to break out in today’s TDCJ. I mean, the Walls Unit did burn down recently, to a large extent, which required the evacuation and relocation of hundreds of inmates. But that’s pretty rare.
For one thing, practically everything in a modern prison is made of concrete or steel. Like the big bad wolf, the inmates can huff and puff – but they simply won’t be able to tear it down, or burn it up. At least, not easily.
On occasion, small fires will still occur, which are more of a nuisance than an actual security threat. The number one example is probably hot pots. In theory, they cannot overheat or catch fire because they contain a thermostat which will turn off the pot when it reaches a certain temperature. In reality, there is probably no item an inmate possesses that he or she hasn’t figured out how to alter in some way – and a hot pot is no exception.
They may get your water hot enough to drink coffee with (although that’s debatable!), but we need it much hotter to properly cook noodles, rice, beans, or the various meats and pouches that we can purchase.
It didn’t take long for inmates to figure out exactly how they could boost their hot pots. For example, you can bend the thermostat away from the heating element, so it has to get hotter before the cutoff temperature is reached. Or you can rewire it to bypass the thermostat altogether. Then it will heat CONSTANTLY, for as long as it’s plugged in.
This is NOT a good idea if you are in any way inattentive, forgetful, or easily distracted. If you stop paying attention for even a few minutes, when you DO look up, your water will have reached a raucous boil, and will actually be in the process of boiling away entirely!
An untold number of inmates have left their cells for some reason, forgetting to unplug their hot pots, and chaos ensued. This morning was a typical example.
Nobody was aware of what was going on until the whole run started to fill with noxious smoke. That’s because once all the water has boiled away, it will continue to heat, until the sides of the hot pot actually begin to melt and catch fire. This produces smoke akin to when a tire is burning (which will, by the way, leave a layer of soot and ash over everything in the cell) – but it will STILL continue to heat, until the plug burns away from the socket, or until it blows the breaker and shuts the power off. Sometimes the fire will spread to any other combustible objects that happen to be nearby – much to their owner’s dismay.
Meanwhile, the other inmates find this absolutely hilarious. For one thing, the guy has to buys new hot pot, which will cost him $24.50. Plus he may have lost other items in the fire. Not to mention the stench and mess that awaits him when he returns to his cell – which will take hours for him to clean.
I’m just glad that today’s entertainment was at somebody else’s expense, and not mine! I had to deal with the smoke, and the power going out – but that’s nothing compared to what HE had to deal with. And like many of our tragedies, it was entirely self-inflicted, leaving him with nobody to blame but himself. So says DannyBoy.