How to Evacuate an MMA Gym:
- cheyennebuchanan
- Nov 5
- 1 min read
Anyone who knows me knows I obsess over spicy food. I’ve been a member of a hot-sauce forum for more than fifteen years and I’m always ordering something outrageously hot. To put it in perspective: the ghost pepper rates about 855,000 to 1,041,427 Scoville units. The Carolina Reaper clocks in around 1,400,000 to 2,200,000).
My custom sauces push the edge (some claim levels up near Mad Dog Plutonium 9.
One day during class I had a bottle that rated around three million Scoville units sitting on the counter. It got bumped, shattered, and the sauce soaked into the rubber mat near the front desk. I grabbed the mat, carried it to the showers, turned the water on, and went back to teaching.
About ten minutes later everyone started coughing. Then their eyes burned. I told them to keep training because my students are tough and they’d rather suffer than stop. A few minutes after that nobody could breathe and we had to evacuate the building.
What happened was simple and horrible. I had set the shower to hot. The steam volatilized the sauce and turned it into a pepper-spray cloud. We stood outside with watering eyes until we could open every door and crank the ventilation. The class that day was short and chaotic, but unforgettable.
Half the students asked why I put the mat in the shower. I didn’t have a logical answer then, and I still don’t.
If you ever want to clear a house or building fast, now you know how. Not that I recommend it in any capacity. Do not try this at home.
Hot sauce, anyone?
— C. R. Buchanan
