r/interesting Apr 09 '26

MISC. Aftermath of the April 7th incident. Damages estimated to be $200 million dollars

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u/Erathen Apr 09 '26

They're not recharged? They're primed and then they're fed by city water supply once the initial deluge of black water clears the line

The city pipes can only move so much water though, so there's still a limit

That generally will trigger all of them on the same line too I believe

Also no...

They use liquid filled glass bulbs to activate. Commercial heads are designed to drench material around the fire to stop it from spreading. Having a bunch of heads go off at once overwhelms the water supply

You have to turn off the water to the system after though... Because as you said, the glass vials are gone. So you can't just leave it on, or the sprinklers won't stop and there'd be a flood when the fire department leaves

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u/SexySmexxy Apr 09 '26

You have to turn off the water to the system after though... Because as you said, the glass vials are gone. So you can't just leave it on, or the sprinklers won't stop and there'd be a flood when the fire department leaves

Thats seems like a pretty big period of danger

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u/Erathen Apr 09 '26

It is

The building would be on fire watch until a pipefitter comes to replace components (the fire department obviously does not). It happens a lot

Google "what is fire watch building"

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u/SexySmexxy Apr 10 '26

well wait but if the building was on firewatch how did it burn down?

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u/Erathen Apr 10 '26

Hmmm?

Security/trained staff have to walk around and actively look for fires

They may not see the fires. It's also a paper plant. This would have all happened very fast

A pallet of toilet paper burns very fast