Freebasser
10-10-2007, 12:59 PM
Some dodgy plumbing/heating firm is working in our building at the moment, replacing the gas boilers and so forth.
A few days ago the fire alarm went off, but since it has a habit of going off every time somebody uses the toaster, we generally don't leave the building in too much of a rush when the alarm sounds. Things were different this time though - as we went to leave through the main exit, the chief plumber/foreman/whatever ran towards the building asking us where our gas meter was. We told him and he rushed inside, only to emerge half a minute later looking a little worse for wear, throwing a dust blanket that was on fire outside into the carpark.
Turns out that the nephew of the foreman (16/17 year old, first week on the job, bit of a one brain-celled wonder) had attempted to remove a gas boiler in the staff kitchen without turning the gas off, just on the other side of our office wall. His cutting tool ignited the gas coming out and sent flames going up the kitchen wall, blistering the skin on his hand open and setting fire to the dust sheet. The reason that the foreman had looked so scared when it happened was because all he'd told his nephew to do was to clear up the kitchen and set up the tools ready for work - they hadn't even got around to looking at the gas system in the building which is why they didn't know where the gas meter was.
Apparently, another 10 seconds or so and the building would've gone sky-high, and would've blown us all to smithereens while we were casually strolling outside :|
A few days ago the fire alarm went off, but since it has a habit of going off every time somebody uses the toaster, we generally don't leave the building in too much of a rush when the alarm sounds. Things were different this time though - as we went to leave through the main exit, the chief plumber/foreman/whatever ran towards the building asking us where our gas meter was. We told him and he rushed inside, only to emerge half a minute later looking a little worse for wear, throwing a dust blanket that was on fire outside into the carpark.
Turns out that the nephew of the foreman (16/17 year old, first week on the job, bit of a one brain-celled wonder) had attempted to remove a gas boiler in the staff kitchen without turning the gas off, just on the other side of our office wall. His cutting tool ignited the gas coming out and sent flames going up the kitchen wall, blistering the skin on his hand open and setting fire to the dust sheet. The reason that the foreman had looked so scared when it happened was because all he'd told his nephew to do was to clear up the kitchen and set up the tools ready for work - they hadn't even got around to looking at the gas system in the building which is why they didn't know where the gas meter was.
Apparently, another 10 seconds or so and the building would've gone sky-high, and would've blown us all to smithereens while we were casually strolling outside :|