licupssy

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Have you ever wondered what happens when you press the red emergency fire button at a gas station? Ya, it's a bad idea.



PS. If you think this is a mess, you should have seen a industrial system with 7 times the powder go off. As someone asked before, I note I worked for a fire suppression company for 12 years before I was disabled on the job. I mostly worked on computer room systems but the company handled everything from portable extinguisher on up. One industrial customer, I had, protected 7 paint mixing bowls in a 25' x 25' room with a 15' ceiling. There were 7 x 50 lb cylinders all tied to activate at the same time. A electric motor caught fire but instead of grabbing a portable extinguisher, the worker pulled the manual for the system. When it was over there was over 6 inches of powder on the floor and in the mixers.

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I solemnly swear that I am up to no good! ~~~SWTWC

Jimi

Was this on the USS Enterprise?

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"I don't care if they're black, white, purple or green. Awww hold on now. Purple or green? You gotta draw the line somewhere. To hell with purple people. Unless they're suffocating. Then help them."


January 2009, the end of an error.

mstad

And where's the black and white photo to go along with the story?

fmb

Ohhh!! That has to suck if you're one of the folks at the pump. The dry powder is corrosive and eats all kinda electrical thingies. I used to test and inspect fire systems, too. I preferred to work with computer rooms and other special hazard areas; I miss the protection offered by HALON systems and the ability to dump the product with people in the room. You just can't get that use with humans with the replacement inerting agents.

Similarly to helium, at high concentrations, halon would change my voice.

licupssy

Being senior tech I handle many extremely large computer facilities Halon 1301 systems. Once a year I did a discharge test at the City of Philadelphia computer room. It was no where near the largest system I worked on but it did have 10 x 200 lb Kidde Halon cylinders. To prove to the workers that it was safe I would stay in the sealed room for the full 10 minutes. Many companies use to scare their employees to keep them from setting off the systems. The greatest danger in large computer rooms was people running into walls. With the noise of the 8 second discharge and the room fogging up, it scare the shit out of people. Add the explosive initiators of systems like Fenwal uses and you get a nice bang when the systen goes off.

___________________________________________

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good! ~~~SWTWC

fmb

Most of the systems I worked with were Kidde, but many of the older systems installed in some nuclear processing areas were Fenwal. Even I didn't like the sound of those Fenwals going off.

Back before the ban on CFC's, we'd dump hundreds of pounds and not bat an eye. Now, the DOE is the nations largest repository of Halon for systems in areas where the newer replacements are not feasible.

It used to be cheap, but the current cost per pound is rather astronomical. Unfortunately, nothing equivalent or better is available. Maybe one day..

Got it! Reset!