Water Flow Alarm

The tones went off just about 10 in the evening. There was a water flow alarm at one of the warehouses in our district.

A water flow alarm goes off when there is a water moving inside the pipes of a buildings sprinkler system. In a monitored system when the alarm sounds we also get toned out.That way if there is an actual fire we can get there in a timely manner.

This time however was like most times. Someone in the warehouse accidentally broke a pipe.

We arrived on scene and were met by one of the supervisors. She said that one of her employees had dropped a box on a pipe and cracked it. They had already contacted the alarm company who said they would be out there first thing in the morning. Meanwhile there was a lot of water spraying everywhere.

Our game plan was to shut off the water to the sprinkler system and then just to let the entire system drain. To do this we had to find the "risers." Pipes through which water is pumped up the side of the wall to the ceiling where the piped then form a grid to provide adequate coverage in case of a fire. The problem was in a building this size (about 500,000 sq ft) there are multiple risers.

Near each riser is a shut off valve. In this case they had a shut off valve on the riser itself (about 7 feet off the ground) and a PIV (Post Indicator Valve) at ground level.

While my engineer and I did some recon to find out just how many valves we were going to have to shut off my captain looked a little closer at the pipe. He noticed that the pipe had been bent upwards causing the crack. He decided to apply a little downward pressure to see if he could stem some of the flow. Nothing happened. So he decided to apply a little more pressure. He found that he could greatly reduce the amount of water leaking.

Most of you can probably see where this is heading.

My captain then decided that if a little pressure was working so well that a little more pressure would be even better. I don't think he consulted with Murphy on this one. The pipe cracked again. This time causing even more water to cascade to the floor.

Oops.

While we went around turning off all of the PIV's we were followed by the assistant might manager. He kept offering little quips and asinine suggestions. At one point he muttered to my engineer that all firemen do is break s**t. He's lucky I didn't hear that one. I don't think I would have been able to stop myself from saying, "You're right. We'll leave." One of his suggestions was for us to shut  down the water main in the street. We had to remind him that he wasn't the only customer that the water company had.

Eventually we got all the valves shut off. The water flow slowed as the entire system drained. Neither the manager nor her assistant offered a thank you.

Oh well.

Thank You.....I Think

We got a call the other day for a citizen assist. These calls come in from time to time and can be anything from a cat in a tree (yes, we actually get calls for this) to someone being locked out of their house. As long as there is no emergent call I have no problem going out and lending a helping hand. After all, we are public servants.

This time the service call came in from an elderly woman that lived alone in her own house. She was unable to change the batteries in her smoke detector (Public Service Announcement: If you didn't change yours when we had the last time change for daylight savings, do it now).

This old lady has been calling us to change out the batteries in the detectors for years. This time she let us know that she had been doing us a favor. Instead of calling us every 6 months to change the batteries now she was only calling us when one of the detectors started beeping the low battery alarm.

So thank you....I think.

Knights In Shining Armor

To be fair it would be more accurately described as guys in PBI and blue t-shirts but that probably depends on your point of view.

We were headed out to grab some grub. The day had gotten away from us and we no longer wanted to go shopping, cook dinner and then end up eating around 8 at night. So instead we were on our way to get something to go. Besides, it makes clean up easier too.

About two blocks down from the station we came up on a stopped station wagon in the center lane that had it's hazards on. We pulled up directly behind them and flipped on our lights as well. It was night time and we didn't want someone hitting us (although it's debatable weather or not turning on all our lights makes this more or less likely to occur).

My captain and I checked traffic and dismounted. The woman in the drivers seat said that she had run out of gas. The three year old girl in the back seat smiled at me while we talked with her mom. We decided that we would stop traffic and push her disabled vehicle into the nearby parking lot.

While my captain played crossing guard my engineer and I pushed. Just as we got her into an actual parking place her husband pulled up. The woman had called him for help. That also meant that we didn't have to worry about leaving a woman alone in a parking lot at night. As we were leaving I gave the little girl a firefighter sticker. I think we made her night.