Somebody Put That Fire Out! Let's Play Fireman!

[synkr0nized]

This is not an LP.



You are a fireman at the local university town. Around noon today, you get a 9-1-1 call (emergency response in the US, as I am aware it's a different number in other countries) about a gas leak. Some Mennonite contractors destructing old deck/balconies and then putting up new ones broke a gas line and caused a gas leak in one of the buildings in a housing/apartment community. Your crews immediately are sent out to respond.

You arrive with at least two of the large engines, an ambulance, and a police squad car. The main road is closed off, the complex's parking lot closed off, and buses are re-routed. Do you:

a) immediately turn off the gas.
b) check the buildings for tenants and make sure they get out safe.
c) cordon off the area.
d) light some matches.
e) make fun of the gas company.




If you answered all but B and D, you are correct. At least in my area, I guess. I was asleep, as the university is on Spring Break and I am a night owl (i.e. I had no classes or labs to teach and am taking advantage of not having to clock in to my job/to do work). While they responded quickly and cleared out the area, apparently no one saw fit to knock on doors and check the apartments of the affected buildings. It wasn't until half an hour after the call that I woke up to use the restroom, actually heard the leak and smelled gas, looked outside to see the fire trucks and watch an ambulance pulling in, and realized what was going on as I shook the sleep off. I tossed on some clothes and went outside, at which point two representatives of the apartment complex standing away in the road hurriedly motioned for me to get away from the building.




About three years ago, in my previous apartment, when there was a fire next door in the laundry room, the firemen had busted through my door to check my apartment for signs of the fire spreading and for me. I was not home, so I came back to the inconvenience of needing the door fixed but the satisfaction that the firemen had mad an on-site judgment call and checked. Here, apparently, either no one cared to check or they stupidly made the assumption that "Oh, the undergrads are all out of town." despite there being many graduate students and even some families living here. Half an hour or so. I am pretty sure that's not cool.




Anyone else have any tales like this? Am I wrong to be upset by this? Any firefighters that have some insight?

[Krylo]

They usually won't evacuate an area until after they take readings on the gas levels. If they are within safe levels, they don't bother.

It's--Turn off gas, take readings. If readings are high, make sure everyone is out and cordon off the area. Making fun of the gas company is done the entire time.

It's possible the area was cordoned off before they arrived by the university folks.

If not, and they're the ones who cordoned it off because the levels were dangerously high then, yes, you should be upset.

Note: That I only know this because I've been the cause of a gas leak.

[synkr0nized]

To one detail that may be unclear due to how I typed it out -- I am off-campus, so any closing down of things was either done by the emergency response teams or the apartment complex staff. The latter, from my small talks with them in the road, sounded like they were just doing whatever the former told them/advised them to do. The university wasn't actually involved in any of this.


I have no idea what the readings were or how severe it was; I can only go by how people around me responded to seeing me open my front door and how wide a berth they gave the buildings in question. It may have indeed been cautious actions taken by the on-site staff first, but they were the ones who seemed shocked to see me still in my apartment and quick to remind me not to light anything [as if telling me that while I stood on the street with nothing on me was useful?].



So now I am curious what happened to you.

[Krylo]

I backed up a pallet jack into a gas line hanging off the ceiling.

Wasn't paying attention, and had gotten too comfortable driving them around to the point of taking unsafe shortcuts--such as not always lowering the forks.

[Hanuman]

Well, you'll probably have to wait for the FFII's to arrive, which can be late if you live here as we have a more segregated industrial//suburb area that most of the FFII's respond to seeing as the majority of their calls are for growop fires.

I'd imagine C would be the first step since that's what the police are prepped for, followed by the evacuation then they would hopefully have a tech either trained by the fire rescue services or the mechanic to turn off the external building gas valves.


I'm training right now to qualify for fire fighter tuition =]

[synkr0nized]

ha ha ha

So these knucklehead contractors that are replacing the balconies throughout the complex and were the ones who tore through a gas line to cause the above are at it again. Not satisfied with that snafu, they broke through some power lines yesterday and knocked out power for a few buildings for the whole day. Where did they find these guys?

[Meister]

ACME Balcony Replacements & Demolition.

Point them towards the water lines so they can get that out of their system right away and you don't have to wait for that shoe to drop.

[synkr0nized]

I know, right? I continue to expect that or, as was suggested by a friend, the sewage to be the next victim.

Also, in all honesty, I question the integrity of my future-balcony once it is "finished".

[Magus]

You'd think these Mennonites, being more technologically advanced than their fellow Amish, would be aware of these gas and power lines, but perhaps to become such balcony experts they have eschewed all knowledge of other things, perhaps even horses, driving their buggies by taking turns pulling them in rickshaw fashion. In which case they should be more accurately termed Proto-Amish and equipped with danger signals to warn other people of their presence (though said sirens and flashing lights would have to be operated by hand-crank).