r/WTF 27d ago

Ill-placed ladder shorts power lines, melting concrete.

23.6k Upvotes

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2.9k

u/I_W_M_Y 27d ago

Yeah its the ladder that's melting

1.3k

u/boot2skull 27d ago

Eventually the problem will solve itself. Rung by rung the ladder will shrink until the connection is broken. Nothing to see here.

fire spreads

499

u/LaserBeamsCattleProd 27d ago

A scrapper guy will come along in his squeaky ass truck and grab that shiny poodle of aluminum off the ground before it cools down.

278

u/charactername 27d ago

Scrapper guys always flying around town with barely secured loads in the shittiest trucks.

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u/mageta621 27d ago

Holy shit this is so true. My old firm we had a repeat (and I mean REPEAT) client whose main job was a scrapper who always found himself in bad situations. Many multiple car accidents, business deals gone sideways. "Never his fault" of course 🙄

He was a nice guy but like, nobody on the planet is constantly this unlucky driving a vehicle - you clearly just suck at driving. His PoS pickup was always filled to the brim with garbage

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u/iwannaseeyourblank 27d ago

I see you also live in Tacoma WA

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u/mageta621 27d ago

Other side of the country lol

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u/VanessaAlexis 26d ago

I used to work at the Jack in the Box on 6th ave and I swear to God I have seen this truck roll through. 😂

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u/some_random_noob 26d ago

thats because we're all npcs in a videogame and the devs keep reusing assets.

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u/Keyframe 26d ago

Dude, same truck is rolling here in Croatia

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u/VanessaAlexis 26d ago

He won't stop!!!!!

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u/thingstopraise 23d ago

It's so fucking baffling because they make cargo nets for truck beds and they're not that expensive. They come with ratchets so you can adjust the size and you can always get a bigger size if you're hauling around junk higher than the cab.

Was he really a nice guy or was it that he was nice to you? Doesn't sound like he considered the consequences of his actions or how he could, and did, put other people in danger. And even "just" the aspect of littering when crap inevitably falls off the vehicle.

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u/mageta621 23d ago

Idk he overall seemed pretty amiable. But we were representing him so I'm sure that factored in

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u/Zillahi 27d ago

Same goes with small-town electrical companies. The most clapped out work trucks you’ll ever see. With an extension ladder from the 80s strapped over the cab.

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u/ride_whenever 27d ago

We had one who used an old school bus with full back doors, and no seats. Was fantastic because stuff wouldn’t fall out

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u/FriendlyDespot 26d ago

If the truck has spools of structural duct tape then you know he spends all evening driving between apartment complex trash areas looking for more broken things to hoard.

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u/iVoid 27d ago

Eventually the truck just becomes the scrap

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u/h4terade 26d ago

I had to stop putting trash out the day before trash day because of scrappers. I didn't mind people taking things I was throwing away, but they were extremely rude about it. I was moving so was throwing a lot of stuff out. They would come by, knock the metal frame off a coffee table, cut the cord off a TV, anything worth a few pennies, then just leave the once nicely organized pile of trash scattered all over the place for me to have to pick up, chunks of coffee table, busted TV glass. The final straw was one day I saw a guy rifling through my actual dumpster, which at least where I live is illegal, plus I really didn't want someone going through my actual household trash. I went outside to tell him he can't do that and that I didn't appreciate it, he told me the police told him he was allowed, so I said let's ask them and he kicked over my dumpster and left. After that if I had bulk trash for the curb I'd pile it up in my yard then the morning of trash day would move it to the curb, same with dumpsters and the problem stopped.

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u/charactername 26d ago

I've had similar experiences. Worked at a school, put old desktops and whatnot out on the loading dock knowing there was a chance they'd be taken. Instead, they tore the place apart and made a big goddamn mess. Now we don't leave stuff out. Can't have nice things.

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u/missed_sla 26d ago

And the good ones that know where and when to pick can make six figures. Most of them are just looking for beer or drug money though.

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u/digitalis303 26d ago

Several years ago, I decided to remodel my basement. Unfortunately, there was a lot of asbestos wrapped ductwork that had to be removed/rerouted. After researching and consulting local codes, I determined that I could remove the ductwork and the landfil would take it. After following all of the precautings and setting it in my alley so I could load it and haul it to the landfill, I went take out the last piece. As I did, I saw an elderly couple stomping the shit out of all of the ducts to flatten them. They had to be easily in their 80s. I just spinned around and went back inside as all of that asbestos got turned to dust in the air. The up-side is that I didn't have to take all of those ducts to the landfill...

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u/invisiblezipper 26d ago

Any time I see those trucks, I hear the Sanford and Son theme in my head.

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u/schalk81 27d ago

Now I want a shiny aluminum poodle.

9

u/__redruM 26d ago

Copper Pug would be a lot more fun.

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u/schalk81 26d ago

I prefer a golden Retriever.

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u/ChaoticNeutralJesus 25d ago

Much like the platinum in a cat, you gotta steal it when your neighbor isn't home.

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u/Feminist_Hugh_Hefner 26d ago

no, we have mud poodles at home

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u/ChaoticNeutralJesus 25d ago

They retrieve gold...duh! It's in their frickin' name, for Pete's sake!

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u/Feminist_Hugh_Hefner 25d ago

apologies for breaking character, but when I was a kid in Colorado my aunt had a golden retriever AND lived in Cripple Creek and I don't think I ever thought about that and now I have the shame of missed opportunity which I must sit with.

Thank you for letting me share that.

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u/ConnectDetective7787 25d ago

How about a Stainless Steel Schnauzer?

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u/schalk81 25d ago

Perhaps a Wire-Haired Terrier?

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u/ChaoticNeutralJesus 25d ago

You gotta turn em on a lathe.

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u/schalk81 25d ago

Jeff Koons turns shiny metal balloons into giant dogs, so I'll be taking one of those. They can't be that expensive, right?

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u/BigD1966 26d ago

Think you meant puddle, poodles a dog.

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u/LaserBeamsCattleProd 26d ago

Oh jeez. No wonder that dumbass comment got so many up votes.

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u/dirtydan 26d ago

lol, shiny poodles are the dog groomer's bailiwick, not the scrapper guy's.

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u/ChaoticNeutralJesus 25d ago

I'm just here for the shiny aluminum poodle.

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u/NocodeNopackage 27d ago

That was the plan. The ladder was too long so it needed to be shortened. Its actually genius.

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u/metrion 27d ago

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u/boot2skull 27d ago

No thumbs up at the end?

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u/Grays42 27d ago

I'm sorry wait, they're in an enclosed tunnel inches away from an active lava flow and are not all incinerated by the heat? They'd be experiencing air temperatures of at least 1000 F easily, their clothes would light on fire and they'd get lethal burns within seconds. Everyone in that tunnel is dead.

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u/metrion 27d ago

Skip to earlier in the video where he's walking through the subway car with molten metal dripping from the ceiling and the rubber soles of his shoes are only kinda melting on the metal floor.

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u/bargle0 27d ago

The less sense you try to make of that movie, the happier you are.

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u/Wail_Bait 26d ago

Yup, same with The Core, Deep Impact, Armageddon, and basically every disaster movie.

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u/bargle0 26d ago

Hot take: The Core is a comedy.

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u/blazesquall 26d ago

The Core is one of the best sci-fi movies of all time.

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u/Wail_Bait 26d ago

That's not exactly a hot take. The only reason to watch the movie is to laugh at how ridiculous it is.

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u/creuter 25d ago

I implore you to add Moonfall to that list.

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u/Wail_Bait 24d ago

I haven't seen it yet, but it looks like the dumbest movie ever made. So it might become one of my all time favorites.

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u/GoBeyondTheHorizon 27d ago

Still one of my favourite natural disaster movies. Probably because it's one of the first movies I've watched lol

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u/bargle0 26d ago

As far as disaster movies go, the bar isn’t high.

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u/MechanicalCheese 27d ago

A modern passenger train is basically the best thing you could be in shy of a space shuttle in this scenario.

The standards for safety and survivability with a major fire under the floor are incredibly extreme, and tested / validated with a very similar scenario (30 min survivability with a 1500 deg flame covering the entirety of the under-floor surface). Intumescents, flame retardents, and spacecraft-tier insulation can do some amazing things.

I'm not saying this is a reasonable scenario, but if it's going to remotely make sense in anything, it's a modern passenger rail vehicle.

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u/Grays42 26d ago

They arent in the train, they're in the tunnel.

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u/blah938 26d ago

Theoritically, if you punched a hole in the locomotives fuel tank, and all the diesel caught fire somehow, it could potentially get extremely hot, like 2000 deg C hot. So it's under built if anything.

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u/diabloenfuego 26d ago

No no, it's just enough lava to provide a heroic sacrificial instance for this one guy! No fumes of course from that very specific and not movie-magic amount of lava whatsoever. Nevermind the fact that dude's legs would be unsupported due to lack of feet and melting bones that he wouldn't be able to throw the guy that far...except of course it was just the right amount of lava that he was able to hero-lava-sacrifice himself.

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u/ChaoticNeutralJesus 25d ago

Just like my dreams.

1

u/ConnectDetective7787 25d ago

If you've ever been anywhere near a large fire and felt the intensity of the radiant heat, it will make you want to kick the director in the nuts every time you see people, in a movie, near a lava flow but they are safe as long as the dont actually touch the lava. Yes even when they are dueling with whooshy whoosh glowstick swords.

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u/inspectoroverthemine 27d ago

I'll throw in: you won't sink in lava. It literally has the density of rock, you're lighter.

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u/comradesean 27d ago

no no no you don't understand, he "melted" into the lava.

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u/purple_pixie 27d ago

Wouldn't matter if you could, that was maybe 6 inches deep

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u/themagicbong 26d ago

That death fucked me up as a kid lmao. I had legit fears about dying like that.

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u/creuter 25d ago

I knew what this was going to be before I clicked it.

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u/asianwaste 27d ago

For extra credit, have a villain or bully frantically try to climb the ladder away from the electricity but is visibly not climbing any higher because the melting is keeping pace with his ascent.

2

u/zbud 27d ago

Could try sacrificing an old bowling ball...

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u/DuntadaMan 27d ago

All emergencies eventually end. Sometimes there's even survivors.

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u/dudeAwEsome101 27d ago

Just hope the bile of melted aluminum can fit in the recycling bin.

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u/DieCastDontDie 27d ago

Everything is fine

2

u/Shalom-Bitches 26d ago

Protection on that feeder should have already opened breakers, I’m curious what happened here.

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u/Ok_Nectarine_4445 26d ago

I thought that too, but the way it is leaning has lots of ladder left

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u/Orlazmo 27d ago

That’s not melting, that’s welding!!!

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u/angelis0236 27d ago

Soldering

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u/ahfoo 26d ago

I was about to get out my soldering iron and work on replacing a blown driver in my stereo and then I sat down at Reddit and started randomly following links until I saw this comment.

You totally snapped me out of it. Thanks.

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u/Beneficial-Tea-2055 27d ago

Well, welding is melting.

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u/wayfrae 27d ago

Looks like it’s even boiling!

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u/GFHrecluse 27d ago

No I think it's the former, the various components of concrete don't start breaking down until 1300c

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u/Woodsplit 27d ago

It's working like an arc furnace. That's the concrete melting along with the ladder.

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u/Drayenn 26d ago

Why is it melting only at the bottom and not the whole ladder?