Automatic Fire Sprinklers

If you work or live in a large commercial warehouse, there is nothing more crucial to your safety than proper fire precautions. Believe me - I found out the hard way.

As an artist and craftsperson, I was pleased as pie that I could find a space to do my work for very cheap in a live/work warehouse in downtown Oakland. But, unfortunately, the lack of expense was for a reason, and one that I should have seen before I moved in and it was too late. Not only was it in a dangerous area (which I knew already) but it was dangerous itself. The building was not up to fire code, and there were inadequate fire sprinklers and containment walls. But that is not the worst part of it. The worst part is that the automatic fire sprinklers were messed up.

Some of them did not work, or could not be triggered properly. Some of the automatic fire sprinklers were not even hooked up to the water source. And of all of the automatic fire sprinklers in the building, at least one half of them were blocked by the false ceiling panels above the wall dividers.

One night, tragedy finally struck, and many of us were very lucky not to be killed for ignoring proper safety. There was a fire effects show, with flame swallowers, and great pyrotechnic displays. The people putting it on were all locals who lived or worked in the warehouse, so there was just a fabulous turn out to watch them all doing their thing. But something went wrong. I do not know what happened - maybe something got kicked over, or one of the flames went a little bit too high - but whatever it was, before you knew it, the building was burning. The automatic fire sprinklers did almost nothing.

A few dripped down, or sprinkled a little bit of water, but the fire hardly seemed to notice. There was only one exit to the room, and the fire was building faster than the automatic fire sprinklers could fight it. It looked like some of us might find ourselves trapped or trampled in the building.

Fortunately, one of the old pipes feeding the automatic fire sprinklers burst, sending out a huge flood of water. This slowed down the fire enough to allow us to get out, and by the time the firemen got in, it was easy to contain. But the lack of working automatic fire sprinklers almost cost us our lives.