A few months ago, my station responded to a routine call for service-a typical fire alarm in a building within our district. Our investigation revealed that it was a very unusual call; it ended with a solution some companies may not even think to attempt.
Our fire alarm response is a battalion, an engine, and a truck. The engine crew checked out on scene, gave its size-up, and proceeded to the alarm panel. At that time, we received another call from dispatch for the same building. This building technically has two physical addresses-one for the street that runs east-west and the other for the street that runs north-south, but it is one building and has only one alarm system. When the battalion realized this, the second dispatched apparatus was cancelled, and we continued to handle the “two calls” with the units already on scene.
The engine crew made it to the alarm panel, which showed a smoke detector activation on the fourth floor. The occupant from that unit had already made his way downstairs to inform the fire officer that burnt food on the stove had set off the alarm. Command sent the engine crew to the fourth floor to confirm the story. They found a light haze and the familiar odor of burnt food but no fire extension to the building.
As they were leaving the apartment, the occupants in the adjoining unit alerted the engine crew that their apartment was flooding. The engine officer entered the apartment and discovered water spraying at a heavy rate from the ceiling in the bathroom. He immediately closed the door to the bathroom and notified command to have the sprinkler system shut down.
The engine crew also requested assistance from the truck crew. While waiting for the truck crew, they started piling towels against the inward-swinging door to slow down water leaking from underneath it. By the time the truck company arrived, water was 1½ to two feet high behind the door. Water had now started to leak out into the living room and saturate the carpet. While assessing the shortest distance for removing the water by usual means, we determined that the closest exit door was out to the patio, approximately 20 feet away from the bathroom. The apartment maintenance man arrived and stated that he called a water-removal service. I’m not sure whether we ever saw the maintenance man again, but I know we never saw a water-removal service.
We were successful in shutting down the sprinkler system, but water was still leaking out at a rapid rate from head pressure in the system. We discussed how to remove the water quickly, effectively, and without doing any more damage. We were on the fourth floor, two more apartment units were directly below us, and a health food store was on the ground floor. We considered several options: squeegees, a water chute, a water vacuum. None seemed appropriate.
Then, I had an idea! It was something I remembered from rookie school back in 1995 (old schooling). I said, “Let’s pull the toilet. Yep, that’s it!” Pull the toilet, and use the sewer to do our drainage work. A toilet is secured only by two bolts on the floor. First, we turned off the water; then I hit the toilet with some force, and the water started moving down the hole so fast that we had to remove anything that was on the floor that wasn’t nailed down. I estimate that it emptied 500 gallons in about 90 seconds. From that point, we squeegeed the remaining water back into the bathroom and let the sewer take care of it.
After the water was under control, we pulled some ceiling to see what caused the leak. We found a four-inch sprinkler line with a one-centimeter hole rusted through the pipe. What has us still perplexed is the coincidence of the fire alarm for the burnt food going off simultaneously with the giving way of a water line rush breach next door. Eventually, we packed up our tools and left the scene. Chalk one up to experience and some old-school teaching of the basics.
Scott Ledet
Captain
Addison (TX) Fire Department
Diversity, the unspoken tool
I began my fire service career almost 15 years ago and have been very fortunate to work with a very diverse group of great people. I always look at my job as a career. Never would I imagine reading headlines of seeing firefighters suspended or fired because of racist remarks. Over my time, I have seen many levels of diversity. Many of them are surface deep, meaning that as I got to know people, especially coworkers, these surface level differences began to disappear. Bonds of trust began to develop and grow; this continues to this day. Many times, we can look back on our own careers and see how bonds have grown. Other times, we may have hindered these relationships from developing because of surface differences, which we allowed to hinder our trust or respect for the people involved.
If we look past the surface, past race, religion, and gender, we see that we are all people-a group of people called to do the same job. We are all public servants; our departments or divisions are made up of a diverse group of men and women. We must treat each other with respect. We must not let surface differences hinder our respect for each other. Racism and bullying have no place in the fire service. Every department around this great nation serves a diverse population. We must look at diversity as a tool. Diversity gives us the ability to serve in a greater capacity, to serve different socio-economic backgrounds and various cultural and ethnic groups. Diversity allows for growth of talent, skills, and knowledge within a department. This growth makes a department stronger and more effective. We are all brothers and sisters of the thin red line. Let’s hold the line with pride, honor, and respect.
Russell Greene
Lieutenant, Engine Company Officer
Irondale (AL) Fire Department
Editor’s note: In “Systematic Views of the 2½-Inch Handline in Fire Attack” (Training Notebook, Fire Engineering, October 2016), the caption under photo 1 on page 22 should read as follows: “The coupling on both of these beds is nearly 10 feet high with no nozzle in sight.”
Fire Engineering Archives
