Oddest work day experience today...

[rightwing401]

Man, this was by far the oddest thing to ever happen to me while on the clock. I work as a reporter, and just before leaving home, my boss calls and tells me that there was a bad fire a town over from where I live, so he sent me to investigate.
While on the scene, the firefighters tell me that two unfortunate people were caught in the blaze and burned up. As I stumbled around the burned site, I the smells were still fairly strong in the air. I could smell the usual ash sort of oder that burnt wood gives off. But there was something else along with it. Kind of like a faint trace of cooked steak, at least that's what it smelled like to me.
It took me a while to realize that I was smelling charred human flesh. I guess it's good for me the bodies had been removed just before I arrived, but man, I can't get that smell out of my mind.

I talked with one of the guys I work with about it, he agreed that what happened sucked, but I have to prepare myself for things like this if I want to keep on working in the business. I'm just hoping that I don't have to deal with something like this again any time soon.

[SymphonicX]

Yeah I got a friend who's witnessed two suicides in the last couple of months (people jumping under trains) where he works on the Tube. He's taken time off over it, been offered councilling and all that...pretty disturbing. Hope it clears out of your mind soon....

[ProfessorChaos]

when i was in iraq there was another marine who died from a roadside bomb and he got burnt up pretty badly. we helped his platoon evac the area and escort his remains to the nearest base. like you, i didn't realize at first what that smell was, but once i figured it out, it made my stomach do a roll.

kinda hard to describe that particular scent, and even more difficult to forget.

[slickwilly13]

My dad was a cop in Houston and saw things like that. They pulled one guy's body from a flaming car wreck. He looked like a charred skeleton with black/brownish teeth. His lips were burned off. The soles of his shoes melted into the bottom of his feet. He said it smelled like burnt and cooked meat.

[capncnut]

Here's a little something I found.


Burning muscle tissue gives off an aroma similar to beef in a frying pan, and body fat smells like a side of fatty pork on the grill. But you probably won't mistake the scent of human remains for a cookout. That's because a whole body includes all sorts of parts that we'd rarely use for a regular barbecue. For example, cattle are bled after slaughter, and the beef and pork we eat contain few blood vessels. When a whole human body burns, all the iron-rich blood still inside can give the smell a coppery, metallic component. Full bodies also include internal organs, which rarely burn completely because of their high fluid content; they smell like burnt liver. Firefighters say that cerebrospinal fluid burns up in a musky, sweet perfume.

Burning skin has a charcoallike smell, while setting hair on fire produces a sulfurous odor. This is because the keratin in our hair contains large amounts of cysteine, a sulfur-containing amino acid (nails also contain keratin, which explains why real tortoise shells smell like hair when lit on fire). The smell of burnt hair can cling to the nostrils for days.

The operators at crematoriums heat bodies to 1,750 degrees Fahrenheit for two to three hours; they liken the smell close-up to a burnt pork roast. Unless someone's standing at the door of the actual cremator, however, it's unlikely anyone will catch a whiff. Modern cremation systems feature smoke stacks and exhaust fans that remove almost all odor.

[FoodFight]

Indeed. I used to work next to a crematorium and there was never a noticible smell. However, our cars often had a fine layer of ash that couldn't be attributed to other sources.

[Arcades057]

Indeed. I used to work next to a crematorium and there was never a noticible smell. However, our cars often had a fine layer of ash that couldn't be attributed to other sources.

I was just going to post that. I was driving around in Boynton one day and hit a red light near a cemetery. I got that fine dusting of ashes on my windshield, and DID smell the place. I guess someone didn't know what they were doing and left a vent open or something. Smelled like a pretty big, funky barbecue cooking.

No stomach-rolling or anything, but it was kind of crazy to know "wow, so someone's getting cooked right over there."

[CornishCorpse]

Damn bad luck dude. Hope that you get over it and get it out of youre head, play some xbox or go hang out with youre mates. These sort of things happen to everyone eventually. Good luck with the work experience,

[rightwing401]

I thank you all for the encouragement and advice. I'm sorry to hear about your stories, but it does help me to know there are others who have had similar experiences.
Thanks for the info capn****, as morbid as it is, it does help also. I've talked it over with several people and have pretty much gotten over the worst of it. I'm still a little hesitant to fry up a steak, but I am eating meat regularly now without a problem.

*Talked to a sheriff's deputy about the incident just today. His advice was, 'be thankful you haven't had to cover a dead person who's been soaking in water for a few days, those are the worst'. Needless to say, that wasn't very helpful.

[Yojimbo]

Rightwing, sorry for your experience. I know it is rough to go through something like that. I am a funeral director and see some pretty rough things in my morgue and at the coroner's office from time to time.

I can say that many folks who have a disturbing experience like yours find that it helps to speak to a professional counselor, or even just talking about it with friends and family helps. I think it is better to discuss things like this with people (just as you are doing) rather than internalizing. It seriously helps!

One thing I can recommend is a trick I picked up from the coroner's investigators: when dealing with "odors" it is helpful to smear Vicks Vaporub or some sort of similar metholatum type of ointment under the nostrils or even inside of the nose. Some even will go as far as to smear some on a surgical mask or other protective gear. Even sucking on menthol lozenges sometimes helps mask odors and scents. I know that that this worked for the staff dealing with Katrina, World Trade Center, and is very common among the homicide investigators and the embalmers that I have worked with.

Sorry again for what you went through, brother!

[acealive1]

was at work at the gas station, and uhhh i seemed to hear someone say "hey we got a BAD gas leak outside" so i shrugged it off cuz people are ALWAYS crying wolf about it. so i look up and theres gas SHOOTING out of this womans gas tank from the nozzle. and i run over and go "what happened?" shes like "oh i went to walk my dog" what the hell!!!!! signs all over the pump saying do not leave car unattended while fueling and she leaves to WALK HER DOG?! so she prints out her receipt..............$81.00 of gas on the ground:stunned::stunned: