On Dec. 3, an attempt by a 23-year-old British man, John Marsey, to fry a slice of bread went alarmingly wrong. Within minutes, his kitchen was ablaze. But thankfully, Marsey and his cousin, Darren, were able to conjure up a makeshift fire blanket. They grabbed a pair of John's mother's size 18 "big panties" from the laundry basket and threw them on the raging pan.

"If they'd been my daughter Sarah's skimpy knickers, they wouldn't have done any good," Mrs. Marsey said,