The Rants of Issachar
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Evacuate the School !
One of our sprinklers went off in the school today. Right outside my lab actually. No the whole system didn't go off thank goodness.
But even with just one sprinkler going, the hallway was flooding inside a minute. And apparently there's oil inside sprinkler systems, (or something black and foul smelling anyway). Christian, have you got any idea what that is or why it's there?
At any rate we had to pull the firebell to evac the kids and send them all home. Went off without a hitch too. So now we've got some very expensive damage in the school, (the water went through the floor to the elementary school before we got it turned off), and an unexpected long weekend.
I felt way too much like a responsible adult taking kids out of the building. Time was when I'd have been the one yelling "RUN ! IT'S A FIRE !!"
Most of the visible mess got cleaned up before I got back into the building, (the cleanup crew arrived almost as quickly as the fire trucks did), but imagine that black liquid spraying all over the hall, (and onto the people trying to exit the rooms at the end of the hall), and flooding the hallway up to the yellow tape and the adjacent classrooms. And soaking through the floor to the ceiling times below...
Update: 9:40 PM Decided to add another photo.
But even with just one sprinkler going, the hallway was flooding inside a minute. And apparently there's oil inside sprinkler systems, (or something black and foul smelling anyway). Christian, have you got any idea what that is or why it's there?
At any rate we had to pull the firebell to evac the kids and send them all home. Went off without a hitch too. So now we've got some very expensive damage in the school, (the water went through the floor to the elementary school before we got it turned off), and an unexpected long weekend.
I felt way too much like a responsible adult taking kids out of the building. Time was when I'd have been the one yelling "RUN ! IT'S A FIRE !!"
Most of the visible mess got cleaned up before I got back into the building, (the cleanup crew arrived almost as quickly as the fire trucks did), but imagine that black liquid spraying all over the hall, (and onto the people trying to exit the rooms at the end of the hall), and flooding the hallway up to the yellow tape and the adjacent classrooms. And soaking through the floor to the ceiling times below...
Update: 9:40 PM Decided to add another photo.
3 Comments:
Posted by: 
ValeriusIssachar said: "And apparently there's oil inside sprinkler systems, (or something black and foul smelling anyway). Christian, have you got any idea what that is or why it's there?"
Hmm...I know very little about fire sprinklers so I wouldn't be able to say. Hopefully none of the computers in your lab got soaked.
ValeriusIssachar said: "And apparently there's oil inside sprinkler systems, (or something black and foul smelling anyway). Christian, have you got any idea what that is or why it's there?"Hmm...I know very little about fire sprinklers so I wouldn't be able to say. Hopefully none of the computers in your lab got soaked.
Posted by: issacharMystery solved. They say it was Iron Oxide. Hopefully Fe3O4. Apparently FeO is explosive and Fe2O3 (better known as rust) is red.
Obviously it's been a while since I did chemistry as I had no idea there was such a thing as black iron oxide.
issacharMystery solved. They say it was Iron Oxide. Hopefully Fe3O4. Apparently FeO is explosive and Fe2O3 (better known as rust) is red.Obviously it's been a while since I did chemistry as I had no idea there was such a thing as black iron oxide.
