Word: firetrap
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...gulf war has sharply transformed the survival prospects for some of the military's most expensive weapons systems. Before confronting Saddam Hussein's forces, the $1.1 million Bradley fighting vehicle had been derided as a firetrap that left its underprotected three-member crew vulnerable to a fiery death from an enemy hit. The $3.2 million M1A1 Abrams tank was criticized as an overpriced gas-guzzler prone to mechanical breakdowns. The $11.7 million Apache was depicted as difficult to maintain in a desert. The Patriot was just another overpriced antiaircraft weapon never tested against missiles in combat. But now, says Gordon...
...what things were like in 1928 and the succeeding years. Since our memories are very selective, we may remember very different things I myself see an ugly wooden building called Browne and Nichols in the center of the Yard, where most of our courses took place, It was a firetrap, I believe, but that did not worry us, and we did no complaining. In another grey wooden building on Brattle Street, we had quizzes in History I every Saturday morning, Still no complaints, but a few groans because the courses were very hard...
...motorcycle accident a few days before publication, and Easyriders' lead columnist, Spider, eulogized him in this fashion: "I didn't get to know the man--he'd just been with us a few weeks. He was working on his S.U. carb on the shoulder of the road near our firetrap the other night when a broad in a cage went off the road, smackin' him and his sled, shovin' 'em a hundred feet down the road. It makes you wonder why these things happen...
Despite its mushroom crop of high-rise reinforced-concrete buildings, the city today is a worse firetrap than ever. Ichiro Uchibaba, an auto repairman who, as a boy of eight, survived the 1923 quake and firestorm, says: "It's worse today-these 2,000,000 cars and 3,000,-000 kerosene stoves in Tokyo are potential bombs. They would cause millions of fires...
...problems end there. Developments on steep slopes often are served by a single access road that by itself alters the natural flow of moisture. Moreover, with only one road for access, any subdivision can become a dangerous firetrap. "Many developers seem not to realize that fire runs uphill faster than on the flat," says Oscar Schmunk, deputy forester. Even now, the slopes are occasionally marked by the lonely stone chimneys of burned-out homes. The fire fighters call them "tombstones." They predict that within five years, if the present rush to live on the slopes continues, Colorado will have disastrous...