Tales from the Front: Darwin’s at Work in this Edger Wheel Fire

Joshua Crossman, owner at P.T.L. Hardwoods in Yelm, Wash., won’t soon forget what he saw when he glanced out the window at a job site one day. He was running the big machine, and as he looked outside, he saw the other worker, who had been running the edger, kicking a flaming pail out of the back of the truck. Crossman rushed outside and asked the worker what happened, and the worker proceeded to tell Crossman that the edger wheels were sticky, so he put them in a pail of lacquer to clean them. Next, to get the lacquer off the wheels, he decided to light the wheels on fire. At that point, the wheels fell out of his hands and into the pail of lacquer thinner. He then kicked the now-flaming bucket out onto the driveway (that’s when Crossman happened to look outside). The worker had to explain to the designer, builder and homeowner why there was a burn mark in the middle of the driveway. “All I could do was shake my head in amazement,” Crossman says.