Fire, or the month from H@&#

It’s been the month from H@&# (its the “h” “e” “double hockey” sticks thing)

The House (the museum, work, not home) has problems… the most immediate with its fire sprinkler system… It’s been a months (years?) old ongoing problem which as now become a crisis…

As I wrote previously, three weeks ago, on a Friday, I was leaving the farm (aka work, home of the “house”) I saw smoke coming out of our garbage dumpster… It was after 6:00… the park employees had left… A park interpreter from a nearby park drove up… We house the park’s fueling station, next to the dumpster… She needed gas… One of the employees from the “Picnic People” our on site caterer was there with his electric cart…Collectively we were the response team…

The interpreter tried to radio in (she had a park district radio) without success… she abandoned that and called in on her cell phone… She played 20 questions… She finally explained our problem… 8’ x 24’ container, fully involved in flames… fuel tank 50’ away, Eucalyptus trees overhead… (Eucalyptus trees have two tricks… they burn like roman candles, and they fall down and crush things… we were more concerned with the first trick)

As a local I knew there was a hose nearby… as interpreter talked to the fire dispatcher, I ran a hose over to the dumpster… the “Picnic People” guy went out to guide the fire truck in… we started to fight the fire… Interpreter took the hose… I ran a second hose in… We could knock the fire down but couldn’t kill it… The fire truck arrives… they have better hoses with higher pressure… They take over… They are professionals… They have shovels, rakes and implements of destruction… I leave a business card and leave…

Five days later, Janie, the fire inspector arrives… If you have a fire, you can expect the fire inspector…

Janie doesn’t like what she finds at the farm… It’s mostly minor stuff, signs, storage, organization, the park is sloppy… When she gets to the house (she spots the fire connection for the sprinkler connection) she is without humor… “Where is the fire sprinkler riser?”… We have one, door marked by blue reflective tape, local fire house with key to door, so far so good… But we don’t have a “5 year sticker” and have a leak in the riser (complete with bucket to catch the water) Janie is not amused… We don’t have a working alarm… She is less amused… About a two thirds of our sprinkler heads have been recalled by the manufacturer… We have tried to get them replaced for a year… We have not been successful… This is now an issue.

Two hours later I hear from Building Maintenance… and again a couple of hours later… Then again 5 times between 6:00 and 7:00… the poo has hit the rotary oscillator. Conferences and meeting are being held at City Hall… people are not happy… their unhappiness is working its way down the food chain… I an at the bottom of the food chain… Calls will continue tomorrow, but for now, the powers have decided that whenever the house is open we have to stand fire watch… Every 15 minutes someone has to walk about and confirm the house is not in fact on fire… and then sign a log attesting to that fact…

People are running about, they are trying to explain to others why this can happen… people are coming in while on vacation… poo is flying.

On the up side… my backside is not at risk… I have reported the problems to the authorities. I have submitted Quarterly Building Inspections stating we have concerns about our sprinkler system… Others have not responded to my reports…

On the down side I am standing fire watch… every 15 minutes… Eventually I bring in PT staff to stand fire watch… I have camps in session… I come in early and leave late… We have a Girls Camp, we have the neighborhood camp coming over at 3:00 each afternoon. I am thinking of a cot in the office.

Its been several weeks… next Monday the fire guys are replacing the defective sprinkler heads… last week we fixed the leak… Maybe we can get off fire watch next week…

I hope so.

By the way, on a separate issue… on Monday, after the fire… (before Janie’s visit) I am off to visit City Hall… I get on the freeway… I get on the second freeway.. something is going on off on the side of the freeway… it’s a fire. A guy is trying to put it out… I pull over, I have a couple of gallons of water… I have a shovel… a second driver pulls over… He has a large water bottle… Collectively we knock it down and put it out… Fire is haunting me. I smell like smoke. I like smoked food, I don’t like smoke.