Tasty, Tasty Arson

November 12, 2006 2:13 PM

Delicious Arson at the Hog Rendering Plant?New York Pork, a Toronto based slaughterhouse, burned to the ground on November 6th. While the cause of the fire is still under debate, the photographs of the cleanup of more than 700 seared pig carcasses make for a disturbing Flickr slideshow.
posted by jonson (37 comments total)

Mmmm. Bacon! BACON! BBQ!

*post needs tags "bacon" and "BBQ"*
posted by loquacious at 2:18 PM on November 12, 2006

Looks like a BBQ to me.
posted by fixedgear at 2:18 PM on November 12, 2006

That is tragic and grotesque. My moral outrage against the arsonists is somewhat confused though, as the hogs were about to die anyway (you know, being in a rendering plant and all).
posted by arcticwoman at 2:21 PM on November 12, 2006

Perhaps this needs an AskMe, but what's a "five-alarm fire"? I assume it means "a really big fire", but how is that fire different from, three alarms, or 247 alarms, or no alarms at all?
posted by randomination at 2:22 PM on November 12, 2006

arcticwoman - hogs were (allegedly) already dead according to the first link: "No living animals were caught up in the blaze, said CFIA provincial spokeswoman Marilyn Taylor."
posted by jonson at 2:23 PM on November 12, 2006

It looks to me like they all were already dead when the fire broke out. Unless, when the fire broke out, they panicked, cut themselves in half, and hung themselves from meat hooks.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:24 PM on November 12, 2006 [3 favorites has favorites]

No burning rivers of lard? That is what I've read happens when pigs burn in quantity. Unless they were already butchered.
posted by stbalbach at 2:24 PM on November 12, 2006

And it's not a rendering plant, it's a slaughterhouse.
posted by fixedgear at 2:25 PM on November 12, 2006

Also, randomination, a no alarm fire is a fire that almost no one notices, like the fire that burns in a young man's heart as he yearns for freedom from an oppressive regime. A 247 alarm fire is reserved for serious emergencies, like when you have a burning sensation in your peepee. Five alarms, counterintuitively is exactly halfway between those two situations.
posted by jonson at 2:26 PM on November 12, 2006 [6 favorites has favorites]

randomination: I can't say for Toronto, but the FDNY seems to have a flexible definition of the alarms system and is a bit catty about releasing information about it.

However, the differences between alarms revolve around the number of fire companies/battalions involved and the types of units required.

As an example with made up figures, a one alarm fire may involve a fire engine and a ladder truck from one company. A three alarm fire might involve three engines from two companies, one ladder, and a hazmat unit.
posted by Captaintripps at 2:28 PM on November 12, 2006

So what alarm fire is it when I have a burning sensation in your peepee as a result of me yearning for freedom from an oppressive regime?

Well, yearning for freedom and sleeping with whores, which I do as a symbolic act, because it represents me freeing something onto somebody's something. I haven't quite worked out the symbolism yet.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:30 PM on November 12, 2006

This was down the street from me. Although St. Clair is a long street I've been wondering why I couldn't smell smoked bacon during the blaze.
posted by sfred at 2:32 PM on November 12, 2006

Actually, the last sentence here is a clearer explanation than I gave, though he's incorrect relative to how it works here in the FDNY to my knowledge.

In fact, this summer we had a warehouse fire down in Greenpoint, Brooklyn which I recall being a thirteen alarm, which I'd never heard of. This of course prompted me to ask my girlfriend who works at the FDNY about the alarm system, she told me, and that's why I'm talking like a hesitant know-it-all.
posted by Captaintripps at 2:36 PM on November 12, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

tagline

MetaFilter: No Burning Rivers of Lard
posted by matteo at 2:44 PM on November 12, 2006

It's just a little burnt. It's still good, it's still good.
posted by piratebowling at 2:49 PM on November 12, 2006

The ones hanging by their hind legs from meat hooks may have perished before the blaze took hold.
posted by fire&wings at 2:55 PM on November 12, 2006

Glad to know they were already dead. I was starting to think some pretty mean things about those of you who were gleefully celebrating it as an abundance of bacon. Now I understand. Mmm... bacon.

And yes, I had realized that the ones on meat hooks were probably like that before the fire. I wasn't so sure, though, about the ones in piles on the ground.
posted by arcticwoman at 2:59 PM on November 12, 2006

Pork Steaks! Yummy!

Shout out to the St. Louis MeFites!
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 3:03 PM on November 12, 2006

Every department has its own dispatch protocol. This appears to be FDNY's.

I have no idea what a five-alarm blaze is in Toronto but apparently in NYC it involves 20 engines, 11 ladders, 5 battalion chiefs, 1 deputy chief and a whole bunch of other service units. That's one big fire.
posted by Opposite George at 3:09 PM on November 12, 2006

Perhaps this needs an AskMe...

Like this one?

(not quite the same question, but close)
posted by shelleycat at 3:13 PM on November 12, 2006

like when you have a burning sensation in your peepee.

My peepee tastes like... burning?
posted by loquacious at 3:30 PM on November 12, 2006

The question is whether this was a long and slow and smoky fire because that's really the best way to draw out the most flavor from the pig. Damn, now I want to go get some ribs and feast.

Thanks, jonson.
posted by fenriq at 3:36 PM on November 12, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Here is a news story describing a recent 7-alarm fire in Toronto. 170 firefighters, and "100 pieces of equipment," whatever that means.
posted by maledictory at 4:20 PM on November 12, 2006

It would've only been a 3-alarm. But people kept throwing applewood in the blaze without soaking it first.
posted by hal9k at 4:45 PM on November 12, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Bacon makes everything better, except in this case, insurance fraud (unproven).
posted by StrangerInAStrainedLand at 5:07 PM on November 12, 2006

My peepee tastes like... burning?

Call me when it tastes like bacon.
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:42 PM on November 12, 2006

MetaFilter: Yearning for freedom and sleeping with whores.
posted by sparkletone at 6:21 PM on November 12, 2006

All those smoked ribs and no sauce...what a pity.
posted by briank at 6:37 PM on November 12, 2006

I just got home from this area. Didn't smell anything, but this place is locally infamous for its smell. When it's working properly, I mean.
posted by stinkycheese at 7:25 PM on November 12, 2006

I wonder if this qualifies them for some government subsidy such as Not Selling Hogs, in a similar fashion to Not Raising Hogs?
posted by fusinski at 7:40 PM on November 12, 2006

If you have a burning sensation in my peepee, that's quite a fire.
posted by emelenjr at 8:16 PM on November 12, 2006

When you have the burning sensation there, all it means is that someone's talking about it.
posted by horsewithnoname at 8:34 PM on November 12, 2006

Hog slaughterhouse set on fire, followed shortly by a blaze at Toronto's best-known kosher butcher shop? I smell a rat. (Mmmm, rat.....)
posted by greatgefilte at 9:29 PM on November 12, 2006

.
posted by Pollomacho at 10:53 PM on November 12, 2006

im in ur peepee burnin' all ur sensationz
posted by cgc373 at 1:20 AM on November 13, 2006

Is that a burning peepee, or are you just glad to see me?

Ahem.

Ladies and germs, I give you Charles Lamb's "A Disseration Upon Roast Pig," about which I haven't thought for decades.

Peace out, y'all.
posted by pax digita at 5:52 AM on November 13, 2006

Five alarms, counterintuitively is exactly halfway between those two situations.

So it's a burning sensation in my bellybutton? When I am yearning for the freedom to peepee? 'Cause that has got to be the fullest bladder EVAR.
posted by eritain at 2:27 AM on November 14, 2006