Mr. Dickey, has it occurred to you that the woman in Wordsmith's example may have had absolutely no idea how to tell what the problem was with her furnace? And even if she had, how can you be so sure that, like you, she was strong enough to carry a five-gallon can of kerosene from the nearest service station -- possibly miles away? I'm a well-fed middle-aged woman who works out frequently, and I know darned well what a 20-litre jerrycan of gasoline weighs -- too much for me to carry more than a block without injuring myself!

Let's not get into the dangers of amateur furnace-starting: the woman in Wordsmith's example was almost certainly brought up from babyhood not to do dangerous things, but to call someone qualified to do it who could be trusted not to burn her house down! Which she duly did, and for which she was severely punished.