In a message dated 05/29/2000 7:00:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> Very interesting Betty. Incidentally the Tyne & Wear Metropolitan
>  Area is my old University stomping ground, the "Geordies" are
>  wonderful people.

How about that!  I just picked that department out of the blue, not knowing
where to start in the UK.  Well then, hooray for Tyne & Wear's bravest!
>
>  What do you think of Halon as a fire suppressant gas? My computer
>  room has a Halon release system (only set on "auto" when noone is
>  in the room), although the manual release switch is well within
>  my stumble height!!

Halon is the standard suppression agent for computer rooms since it won't
damage the equipment.  It displaces oxygen though, as I'm willing to bet you
already know.  I've always been leery about trusting mechanical equipment to
behave properly when life safety is a consideration, but in truth, I've never
heard of a halon suppression system malfunction causing death.  Unless
they've developed something new since I've been gone, I don't know of
anything aside from halon that will do the job without damaging computer
equipment.  I don't know a lot of things though, there may be something else
now.
>
>  At a previous building I worked the computer room was below
>  ground level. One day we had the Fire Officer in for a Halon
>  release test (where we substituted a red smoke canister for the
>  Halon). All went smoothly, smoke filled entire room, and then the
>  vent pumps kicked in and the smoke was sucked out. I'm sure the
>  Fire Officer was about to give us a clean bill of health until we
>  walked around the side of the building to see 20 people stood at
>  a bus stop with red smoke billowing out of a vent all over them,
>  oops!!!
>
  A proud moment for the fire officer, no doubt.  Of all the stories he's
going to tell his grandchildren, that won't be one of them.

We were coming back from a call once, and for some reason, we were way behind
the pumper (I was on the ladder truck).  We probably stayed behind at the
scene to do extra work or something.  We came around a bend in the highway to
see that the driver of the pumper had gotten to close to a sign on the
shoulder of the highway and clipped his right rear spotlight on the sign.
Somehow, the hose got tangled up in all of this too, and he dumped all the
hose on the right side of the hose bed.  It just fed out behind the pumper
onto the highway.

The first thing we saw when we came around the bend was a lady wearing a
dress in very high heels holding a section of the hose in her hands.  I guess
she stopped to try to help (even more embarrassing for a bunch of fireman
already looking pretty darned stupid).

We could have stopped to help I suppose, but at that moment it seemed more
appropriate to drive by them laughing our a**es off.