Why no one should take a video selfie in front of a dumpster fire

Should’ve seen that coming.

Miles Klee

Updated on May 29 2021 7:05 am CDT

https://www.flickr.com/photos/benwatts/4087289013/in/photolist-7ebqCe-7efiXL-8CxhQ3-bNUmKz-bzZHwQ-9TWCsF-9TWKn8-2UCavs-cgQMWm-2PK6H-5qZh5e-5r4CgE-5r4Bib-5qZiux-5r4Arb-5qZi6n-5r4BHW-5qZgxv-5r4B4o-5qZhK6

If you ever see a large object or structure on fire, you will be sorely tempted to frame it in the background of a video selfie. We urge you to resist this instinct, lest you pull a Tom Lavery.

Lavery, it seems, just had to get a shot of a dumpster blaze that had broken out during a St. Patrick’s Day parade in New Haven, Conn.

For this impudence, he paid a terrible price.

Just one of those times when firefighters realize that all their sacrifice has been worthwhile.

H/T Tastefully Offensive | Photo via Ben Watts/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

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Miles Klee

Miles Klee is a novelist and web culture reporter. The former editor of the Daily Dot’s Unclick section, Klee’s essays, satire, and fiction have appeared in Lapham’s Quarterly, Vanity Fair, 3:AM, Salon, the Awl, the New York Observer, the Millions, and the Village Voice. He’s the author of two odd books of fiction, ‘Ivyland’ and ‘True False.’