Lesson 2: Ribs

The student: Santa Barbara firefighter Matt Osborne.

The disaster: Osborne incinerated some ribs one Super Bowl at the firehouse while leaving them unattended to watch the game with his coworkers. The next morning, he tossed the smoker’s mangled remains into the station’s dumpster and nearly set it on fire.

The hope: Redemption. "The entire event still haunts me today," he wrote. "It has been six years and the guys still bring it up."