Another one for the books

["Bob La Londe" <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I got a call yesterday from a customer because his fire system kept going
off.  The city has a contractor working on water mains in the area, and the
sprinkler flow switches keep going off as it drains and refills and as air
int he system shifts causing water flow.  I don't do fire sprinklers just
monitoring so don't get on me about backflow valves etc...The building is
ancient anyway, and no telling how long ago the sprinklers were installed.
I doubt back flow vlaves were required when it was installed.  It still has
a water powered bell.

A local fire inspector actually wrote the client a ticket for the false
alarms.  I would have gone ballistic, but the building owner showed up
before I did, and promised a lawsuit against the city fire department if
they persisted in that since the blatant cause was the city's fault.  The
inspector tore up the ticket.

The inspector then tried to make up some garbage about it being the smoke
detectors.  Sorry pal the only zones tripped were the sprinkler zones.