Re: Another one for the books

[J. Sloud <jsloud2001@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 07:21:22 -0800, "Bob La Londe"
<usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>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.
>

I once got a summons for false alarms due to some idiot connecting to
the unmetered sprinkler system supply to wash down his back dock.  He
thought he was being clever by stealing water.   About once a week,
they'd roll the trucks and he'd claim the fire system was just false
alarming.  I never did find out if he was to stupid to realize he was
causing the alarms or if thought he could just get away with it.