BIRTHDAY CAKE SETS OFF SCHOOL SMOKE ALARM

BIRTHDAY CAKE SETS OFF SCHOOL SMOKE ALARM



HASTINGS, New Zealand (Wireless Flash) – You’ve probably seen birthday cards that joke about someone being so old their cake may set off the fire alarms. Well, it happened to a school principal in Hastings, New Zealand, whose plans to celebrate his 60th birthday quietly with some colleagues went up in smoke recently when the cake candles started flaming. Frank Fillary blames the nightmare on the self-relighting candles his staff put on the cake which caused enough smoke that the local fire department had to be called. Although Fillary’s cake was relatively undamaged, he says no one ate it because he “... had blown on it too many times.” Fillary hopes that a big fuss isn’t made next year but, just in case, he plans to insist on fewer candles “and to light it outside.”

Wed 12-19-01