Undertoad Radical Centrist

Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,292

4/12/2006: Ellsworth AFB foam test Quick note... if you are linking to this very popular thread, please link to the blog view version instead. It saves resources for the rest of the cellar.org community. Thanks!







How do you figure out whether a foam firefighting system in an air force hangar is set up correctly and works? Well you turn it on for a few seconds, to make sure it's got pressure and everything. First you set up a scaffolding so you can record the event and show the flow coming out of all nozzles.







And then you let 'er rip. After 15 seconds you can see foam is covering all areas it has to, so the test is successful. Shut 'er off.







Uh, guys? Shut 'er off?







Aw crap. Whatever was meant to shut off the system after 15 seconds, did NOT shut it off and the foam continued to flow. After a few minutes...







The foam is a story high and still flowing!







Uh, Joe? you can climb the scaffolding ladder now...







Two stories high.







This is the guy standing on top of the scaffolding.







So they just let it go.











Thanks to xoxoxoBruce for the initial set of photos and then I googled and found a great How do you figure out whether a foam firefighting system in an air force hangar is set up correctly and works? Well you turn it on for a few seconds, to make sure it's got pressure and everything. First you set up a scaffolding so you can record the event and show the flow coming out of all nozzles.And then you let 'er rip. After 15 seconds you can see foam is covering all areas it has to, so the test is successful. Shut 'er off.Uh, guys? Shut 'er off?Aw crap. Whatever was meant to shut off the system after 15 seconds, did NOT shut it off and the foam continued to flow. After a few minutes...The foam is a story high and still flowing!Uh, Joe? you can climb the scaffolding ladder now...Two stories high.This is the guy standing on top of the scaffolding.So they just let it go.Thanks to xoxoxoBruce for the initial set of photos and then I googled and found a great gallery at Strategypage