Sam Dean
Back in January, a truck full of caramelized brown goat cheese caught fire in a Norwegian tunnel. Normally, you'd think "melty cheese, big whup, I've had fondue," but this cheese fire raged for five days, producing enough toxic gas to shut the tunnel down for weeks to come. A Norwegian policeman named Viggo told the BBC that the Brunost cheese, a national delicacy that's also beloved of BA Foodist Andrew Knowlton, has such a high fat and sugar content that it burns "almost like petrol if it gets hot enough." That's right, your cheese might just burn like gasoline, given half a chance. And to think we trusted cheese. "My daughter eats this stuff every morning," said Knowlton. "Maybe I should reconsider."
An official in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration said that this is the first cheese fire in memory on Norwegian roads, but it's hardly the first time huge quantities of food have triggered huge amounts of mayhem. Even though today is National Pie Day, we're not talking about food fights -- we're talking about explosions, floods, and near nautical disasters that would make you beg for a giant truck of flaming goat cheese in your life.
