Toilet Paper, a School, Hazmat, and Being Funny

So much depends on context. For example:

"...Dozens of YouTube videos show Cessna pilots throwing toilet paper from their planes and cutting the resulting ribbons with their propellers.

" 'It is an old stunt to drop a roll of toilet paper from a plane and then try to cut the resulting streamer with one's wing or propeller,' said hobby pilot Wayne Smith of Knoxville, Tenn., in an e-mail. 'Getting a hazmat team to check out the results is beyond ridiculous. Where has our country's sense of humor been hidden?'..."
(NorthJersey.com)

Joyriding in an airplane, trying to shred toilet paper? That actually sounds like fun. Silly, a bit stupid, potentially dangerous: but fun.

And who could possibly think otherwise?

Hazmat Meets Toilet Paper

Here's how a hazmat team and toilet paper met recently, in New Jersey:

"Update: Westwood field bombed from air with toilet paper; pilot could be charged"
NorthJersey.com (October 14, 2010 )

"A Westwood man who bombed the middle school grounds with toilet paper may face federal charges for reckless operation of an aircraft and dropping objects from a plane without proper authorization, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said Thursday.

"The pilot, whom the spokesman declined to identify, flew a single-engine propeller plane registered to a Westwood address over the high school and athletic fields shortly after 6 p.m., covering the athletic fields and surrounding area with his soggy cargo, F.A.A. spokesman Jim Peters said....

"...Children were on the field at the time of the incident, Peters said.

"The aircraft, a Cessna 172 S, took off from Caldwell at 6 p.m., and landed there an hour later, after making three passes over Westwood Regional Middle School and papering an adjacent athletic field, surrounding trees, the building, and the ground in front of the high school, Peters said...."

"...Investigators from the Bergen County Sheriff's Department, who were called to investigate objects dropped from a low-flying aircraft, retrieved four rolls of soggy toilet paper from the scene, Sheriff Leo McGuire said. Hazmat teams were also called to the scene but did not find any indication of hazardous materials, McGuire said....

"...'What might seem to be a somewhat harmless prank, in this post 9-11 age, especially with the amount of air traffic we have from Teterboro and the New York airports, a low-flying aircraft is extremely disconcerting,' he said. 'If this was a prank, it is a prank that will end in arrest for the perpetrator.'..."

The toilet paper may have been dry when in left the airplane. According to the article, it was "a dewy night," so by the time investigators arrived the toilet paper streamers were wet.

As it turns out, the wet toilet paper was just wet toilet paper: annoying, maybe, but harmless.

I don't always side with "the authorities." Like when a middle-school student was led away in handcuffs - for using an erasable marker. (Apathetic Lemming of the North (April 6, 2010))

In this case, though: I think sending that hazmat team was a prudent choice.

Just Wet Toilet Paper

Like I said, the stuff festooning the school grounds was just wet toilet paper. Wet toilet paper is notoriously difficult to remove from tree branches: but it's hardly a threat, except to one's aesthetic sensibilities.

But consider the possibilities.

Remember Anthrax?

Wet just about anything, however, can harbor pathogenic microorganisms. And, sometimes, even dry powders can be dangerous. Remember the 2001 Anthrax situation? Sure, the stuff only killed five people: but folks were a tad cautious about opening their mail, after word got around. (August 6, 2008)

War isn't Funny

I might, as a teenager, have thought that running onto an airport tarmac and throwing a backpack toward an airliner would be funny. The backpack wouldn't have anything dangerous inside, so everybody would understand that it was a joke, right?

Eventually, maybe. Even then, quite a few folks would have frowned on a daft stunt like that.

Now?

Like it or not, there's a war on.

War isn't funny: things get broken, and people die.

Biological weapons exist. The 2001 anthrax incident seems to have been the work of one man, and not all that directly connected to what we usually think of as "terrorists:" but it showed what could be done.

"Hobby pilots" may or may not be aware of what's happened during the last decade.

Emergency responders, on the other hand, don't have much of a choice. It's their job to be know about threats they might have to respond to.

Maybe the odds are that an airplane dropping ribbons of white material over the grounds of a school isn't a threat. I think that's the case.

But it's not, I also think, a good idea to assume that odd events like that probably are pranks, and act on that assumption.

This Didn't Happen

Let's say that the 'funny prank' wasn't so harmless, and the Westwood, New Jersey, authorities were a more hearty, less cautious lot.

Hearing that an airplane had dropped long white ribbons of stuff on a school, the Westwood branch of the Keystone Cops were startled at the news. Then, with remarks like 'boys will be boys,' and 'wish I'd done that,' they went back to chomping donuts and drinking coffee.

Problem was that, in this (hypothetical) case, the long white ribbons were laced with little, tiny, microscopic critters. Not very nice ones, either.

A week later, with the area between Spring Valley and Hackensack cordoned off, someone from the CDC was trying to convince a Congressional committee that it was a really bad idea for them to enter Westwood and interview survivors.

Unlikely? Probably.

Impossible? I don't think so.

And I don't think it's a good idea for emergency responders to react - or not react - based on what they feel might be so.

Related posts:

• "Police Handcuff Dangerous Student! School Protected From Erasable Marker!"
  Apathetic Lemming of the North (April 6, 2010)
• "Anthrax Suspect: Mad Scientist? Frustrated Businessman? Victim of Conspiracy?"
  (August 2, 2008)

In the news:

• "Update: Westwood field bombed from air with toilet paper; pilot could be charged"
  NorthJersey.com (October 14, 2010 )

EOB: Executive Office Building, Near White House, is On Fire

The Eisenhower Office building, AKA Executive Office Building, AKA EOB, is on fire. Not the whole thing, just a couple of rooms on the second floor.

The odds are pretty good that the fire started in the construction that's been going on in the building for the last year or so. It might, or might not, be an electrical fire that got lucky.

The EOB is one of those old nineteenth century buildings, with 18 foot ceilings and four-foot-thick stone walls. Quite a landmark. I hope that the architect's "fire proof" design hasn't been messed with. His building was made of stone, concrete, with some cast iron for decoration.

There's some good news here:

• The building evacuation was orderly, with people walking, not running - a good, routine, orderly process.
• The fire seems to be limited to a room or so.
• Emergency response seems to have been prompt, and thorough: Something like a dozen vehicles showed up.

Something I don't quite understand: One firefighter, inside the building, took a tool to a window pane, broke it out - and then lifted the sash. It seems to me that it would have been faster, and more effective, to just lift the sash.

Now, maybe a half-hour after this news broke on cable, the smoke coming out of the EOB is white - indicating that there's water being put on the fire. And there isn't anywhere as much smoke as before.

The fire isn't out, but it's being dealt with.

More good news:

• The fire was low-key enough so that firefighters have been able to carry some furniture out - I saw one drape something like a coffee table over a (stone) balcony.
The emergency response seemed to be smooth, and by the numbers: quick, orderly, efficient - like it should be.
• And, according to Homeland Security, the fire is contained.

---

More facts, and opinions, as they crop up:

News weirdness:

• About 10:15 Washington time, the report was was that Secret Service, that has offices in the building, was that Secret Service agents were preventing firefighters from getting into the building.
  
  Reality check: five minutes later, we hear that Secret Service agents are vetting everyone who goes into the building, to make sure that they really should be there. Not a bad idea, considering how many sensitive documents are in there, and what a wonderful opportunity this would be for someone to plant a regrettable device in the EOB. Apparently, fire investigators aren't being allowed in. Not yet.

Background and Details

• The fire most likely started in an electrical closet near the Vice President's ceremonial office. I hope that room wasn't damaged or defaced by the fire. My guess is that it would be somewhere between difficult and impossible to fix the damage properly these days. We don't make things now, like they did over a hundred years ago. Often, for good reason.
• Details about the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, from the White House website.
• Interesting detail: The reporter I heard called it the "Executive Office Building," or EOB; For the White House, it's the "Eisenhower Executive Office Building," or EEOB.
• That "Eisenhower" part of the name comes from President Eisenhower saving the building from demolition in the fifties. The place has been due for repairs and renovation for decades: and quite a bit of it is getting worked on now.
• The EOB has been getting upgrades for a long time. In 1900, holes were drilled in the EOB's granite and ironwork to accommodate the War Department's new telephone system (this is the current Fact of the Week from the White House site). It might have been easier to tear the thing down, in the fifties, and then tear that down now, with today's technology in mind. I'm glad the old building was kept, though. I think there's a place for tradition.
• One injury: a U.S. Marine was on the fifth floor when the fire broke out. With a fire of undetermined extent between him and the ground, he quite reasonably broke out a window. With his hands. He was treated at the scene for lacerations, and refused transport to a hospital.

What's the big deal with this fire, and this post? I'll write about that next.