Nothing quite like the smell...

[Stephen]

JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — A cigarette pitched down a ski area toilet is the suspected cause of an underground fire that took several hours to put out.

Plastic fixtures melted in the mid-mountain men's room at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, but the flames did not reach out of the toilet Monday.

"It was too hot to be sitting on the toilet, that's for sure," Teton Village Fire Chief Watt Hyer said.

The fire smoldered overnight before ski patrollers tried to put it out by dumping snow down the toilet. Firefighters arrived around 10 a.m. and began skiing 5-gallon jugs of water down to the bathroom, which can only be reached on skis or by snow machines. The fire was extinguished by 2 p.m.

Hyer said he is not familiar with any other toilet fires and is not looking forward to another one.

"This is not the type of thing we want to be responding to," he said. "You can imagine what's burning down there."

The toilet uses a compost system, and signs in the bathroom warn people not to throw cigarettes down it.

 

[MichaelJ]

signs in the bathroom warn people not to throw cigarettes down it.

Yes, but people are dumb. :roll:

 

[smitty77]

Somewhat obscure reference: The sewer explosion at the end of "Christmas Vacation." Gives new meaning to the bomb squad phrase "Fire in the hole!"

I guess it's amazing this hasn't yet happened in the Whites. They'll have to introduce a new national forrest campaign for outhouse safety, adding Joe camel to the Smokey the Bear signs:

Feel the seat when you sit.
Please don't smoke when you s**t.
Today's hut menu: Chili
Fire danger: Dangerously HIGH

Sorry if this offended anyone. Getting a little punchy after battling the flu, or something like it, for a few days.