Woman Jailed For Starting Office Fire To Leave Work Early

A Florida woman was sentenced to nine months in jail, followed by five years of probation, for starting an office fire so she could get out of work early. From the article: "Pasco sheriff's investigators said Michelle Perrino, 40, started a fire at Bayonet Point Oxygen on May 12, 2009. Perrino drew suspicion when she mentioned the fire's origin — a filing cabinet — during an employee meeting. Employees had not been told where the fire started." I hope she had the good sense to start the fire on Friday so she could have a long weekend.

Comments

Case of the Fridays

[Gothmolly]

Well, studies HAVE shown that if you do this sort of thing on a Friday, there's less chance of an incident.

Re:Case of the Fridays

[mnmn]

She should get....

(you know what) ...fired.

Re:Case of the Fridays

[Anonymous Coward]

Six day weekend? pishaw!!!

She now has a 9 month weekend.

9-month weekend? Yeah, I remember when I gave one of my female employees one of those! YEAH! giggity
and, uh, yeah... I have to pay child support dammit

Re:Case of the Fridays

[Sir_Lewk]

Did you know that 40% of office fires are started on Mondays or Fridays? Shocking!

Re:Case of the Fridays

[EMH_Mark3]

YEAAAAAHHH!!

Re:Case of the Fridays

[iamhassi]

no no it's 0118 999 881 999 119 725........ 3

Crazy...

[Arancaytar]

If she hates her job that much, why doesn't she just quit?

And then set the place on fire?

Doesn't work for IT

[mikael_j]

Sadly starting a fire or tripping a breaker won't work very well for anyone in IT, they'd just be stuck at work over the weekend making sure everything was working (or in the case of a fire, building new servers with no time to sleep or rest).

Re:Doesn't work for IT

[DrgnDancer]

Actually the problem here looks like she was a complete and total moron who blabbed details of the crime that only investigators, the owners, and the criminal would have had.

Sociopathic *and* stupid. there's a match made in heaven.

Work avoidance is a serious problem.

[selven]

Work avoidance is a very serious problem, guys. Did you know that about 40% of sick days are taken on a Monday or a Friday?

Re:Work avoidance is a serious problem.

[Dogbertius]

Yep.

Re:Work avoidance is a serious problem.

[hedwards]

Contrary to popular opinion, being sick of work is a legitimate reason to take a sick day. There's numerous legitimate illnesses that come from working too many days without a three day weekend or vacation.

While, mandating a 6 week paid vacation for every employee is, in my opinion, going too far, it's absurd that there isn't a legislated right to at least a week or two of paid vacation. Productivity would most likely even go up were that to be enacted.

Re:Work avoidance is a serious problem.

[RobertLTux]

yeah in my case my employers know that im only good 12 out of 14 days so i can do 12 but 13 is under question and 14 is right out.

Re:Work avoidance is a serious problem.

[selven]

Meanwhile, 35 per cent of all sick leave is taken on a Monday, and the lowest rate is on Friday, at just 3 per cent of the total.

38% total. Looks like my 40% figure is just about right!

Re:Work avoidance is a serious problem.

[Anonymous Coward]

BP is doing its part to keep that nasty stuff under control by encasing it in a viscous organic containment substrate.

Re:What?

[CaptSlaq]

News for nerds? Stuff that matters? This is not front-page material.

They must have taken her stapler.

Bayonet Point Oxygen?

[LordKronos]

Wait. So as if her action alone wasn't stupid enough, she started a fire at Bayonet Point Oxygen? An oxygen supply company? There's a reason they tell people on oxygen not to smoke.

Re:Bayonet Point Oxygen?

[Anonymous Coward]

Small correction: the warning on the bottle is there to prevent legal actions against the manufacturer from succeeding. The fact that it may also prevent some stupid people from causing an explosion/conflagration is a secondary benefit. But the primary is the legal one.

Re:Bayonet Point Oxygen?

[LordKronos]

No, it is NOT a myth. Did I say that oxygen was flammable? No, because it isn't. However, in the presence of concentrated oxygen (vs the concentration normally found in the atmosphere), fuel will burn MUCH MUCH quicker. Things that would normally burn at a very slow pace can go up in flames in just a few seconds in pure oxygen. Dropping a hot cigarette ash on your clothing would just normally smolder for a second, cause a burn mark, and then extinguish itself. In the presence of concentrated oxygen, however, that same ash can cause your clothing to go up in flames quickly, causing severe burns.

So of course it's not dangerous because it's flammable. It's dangerous because it can turn a minor fire into a blaze very quickly.

Re:Bayonet Point Oxygen?

[LordKronos]

I should also add on to my last post the following:

The other danger with oxygen is that not only does it make things burn quickly, but it makes it difficult to extinguish. So if you are working with fire (say, trying to set an office supply cabinet on fire) and a spark jumps to you and sets your clothing on fire, normally you could just pat it out, or if worse, do the stop-drop-roll technique or use a blanket to smother it. The problem is, with concentrated oxygen those techniques often don't work very well because you can't remove enough oxygen to interrupt the combustion.

You're fired!

[12WTF$]

Reason for leaving: I fired my boss!

Re:You're fired!

[smitty777]

Hmmm...that's likely to ignite a debate at the office.

Re:You're fired!

[Ipeunipig]

A heated debate?

There's a backstory

[digitalhermit]

There's always a back story. Did anyone ask her about the frequent moves she's had to endure? First on the Third Floor, then she got moved to the Second Floor, then to the lobby, then to the basement. And no one even mentioned the payroll issues she has been having. They stopped her paychecks for some reason. The last straw was probably the stapler incident...

Re:There's a backstory

[stewbacca]

And she was led to believe there would be cake.

I'll burn the place down

[UninformedCoward]

I think you have my stapler...

Sociopathic and stupid vs not

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

That doesn't surprise me that someone convicted of a crime is sociopathic and stupid.

Those that are sociopathic and smart become politicians, lawyers, and CEOs.