Flooding and Firemen

I said on Seesmic today this place is out to get me and earlier this evening we had another example of it. Sitting in my room I hear a bang, a whooshing news and then a fair bit of swearing and shouting. I went out to find that one of the sprinklers had gone off and was pouring water into the apartment. The sprinkler was next to the only source of heat in the place, a ceiling mounted gas heater, as there’s been no central heating since Friday, so that may have triggered it, but we’re not sure.

Anyway, what we have now is water pouring in at about 35 gallons a minute and no way of switching it off. We can’t close the valve as it has a padlock and chain on it preventing them being shut. Between us we managed to get things done. Clear away the stuff and get a bucket brigade going with the 3 garbage cans. Everyone gets soaked with the rusty old water. Luckily there were 7 people here so we managed to contain a lot of it, but there is still an inch of water spread in many places. John phones 911 and the Fire Brigade turn up in about 10 minutes. One chain cut, one valve closed. They found another sprinkler head to replace the broken one, so we still have fire protection.

The water was in the public section, so most of the stuff is OK, except a lot of the paintings done by John. We’ve spent the last hour or so cleaning up, mopping and pushing the water out of the place it just needs to dry out. Hopefully the heating will be back soon to help that along. Not the most pleasant way to spend a Sunday evening!

Changing the sprinkler

3 thoughts on “Flooding and Firemen

  1. Apparently 4. One to climb the ladder, one to hold the ladder, one to hold the torch and one to watch