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.

Water Flow Alarm

After a long night the tones went off again at 0500 hours. Way to early. This time the engine and the truck were responding for a water flow alarm at Home Depot. We thought it was just going to be a false alarm until we heard that the alarm was sounding in 14 different zones though out the store.

When we arrived on scene we found the store open for business with customers scurrying outside. As we looked through the doors of the store we could see that the floor was covered in water. The truck crew decided to cancel us and we headed back home. They ended up getting off late because they were dealing with the problem.

What had happened is one of the delivery drivers had tried backing up to the back door and sheared a hydrant. There was a slight down hill slope headed right into the store. The guys on the truck shut off the hydrant and then squeegeed the store clear of water.

The guy that backed over the fire plug was no where to be seen.