The News & Observer has fixated on a UL label in its story on the foam used to extinguish the yard-waste fire in Durham. It seems a reporter Googled the name of the company that sold the foam to Durham and found that, lo and behold, there were entries showing the company maybe didn’t have a Underwriters’ Laboratories approval and that the foam wasn’t exactly like the foam used at the World Trade Center site after 9/11. All of which is immaterial to the fact that the foam worked. After all of the concerned prose, the last two paragraphs in the story were these:
[Bruce] Pagan, the fire chief, couldn’t say whether the huge containers of Pyrocool delivered to Durham bore the UL seal of approval. Portions of the labels appear to have been scratched off, he said, including the list of ingredients.
But whatever was in the drums, it appeared to be more effective in fighting the yard waste fire than water alone, he said.
This is the kind of news story that makes the reader go, “So what?” As a citizen of Durham who could smell the smoke at his house, that’s really all I care about this issue.
