At a previous employer, We had just completed building a new Computer
Center. This building was in the same area as others that this company
owned, So they were going to use the same cleaning company that the
other buildings used. Our building had sensors that unlocked the door as
you approached, but the older buildings had Red Buttons to push to
unlock the door to get out. You probably guessed by now, When the
Cleaning Crew came over and cleaned the Operations Console Room, They
thought they had to push a button to get out of the room. The Console
Room design had the Red 'Emergency Power Off' Button only 4 foot from
the exit. He pushed the button to get out and all power went off. Talk
about people scrambling.... 3:00 in the afternoon is not a good time to
test this button. Needless to say, There was a plastic box covering that
Red Button the next day. :-) 


Thanks...Guy M. Gates Jr.
TTI Z/OS Systems Programmer
Phone: (817) 740-9000 x-4627
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Duffy, Peter
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 2:44 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: HALON et al

The one dump I was in was after a water alarm went off due to an A/C
unit drain clogging and a puddle finally triggering the alarm.

Operator ran to the panel, did not know what to do so they decided to do
SOMETHING, they pulled the manual release.  I was the second one out
after I got hit with liquid HALON.  Thick hair saved me from frostbite.
One nozzle broke off from the ceiling, dented a floor tile pretty well.
I was the second one out as I had an operator impaled on my right arm as
I pushed through the doors. 

We had training the next week on override procedures.  Press and hold,
call security, wait for instructions.  So I asked, "where's the phone?"
Manager looked at me like I was stupid and pointed to one wall.  So, I
asked, "where's the override?" and he angrily pointed at the button in
front of him.  On another wall, 20 feet away from the phone.  It dawned
on him as people started to laugh.  I never saw the telephone people
install a new phone so fast.  3rd shift was a one person show and the
usual operator thanked me as she laughed.

Next dump was on a Saturday at another site, I got paged, a water alarm,
manual release, yada yada yada.  Walked them through the power up over
the phone as I gasped between laughs as I drove over.

Any good Big Red Button stories?  Hehehehe  Seen my share of those.  Had
a customer VP say, "That button?  It's not hooked up to anything."  He
pushed it and 30 spacecraft engineers on high end UNIX boxes started
screaming as the room plunged into darkness.  All I had said was, "can
we get facilities to remove it when we have a scheduled building power
outage?"  He said yes.

/ptd

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Leonard Woren
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 12:04 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: HALON et al

On Wed, Jun 22, 2005 at 01:55:23PM -0500, Ned Hedrick
([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> There is also a product called Inergen -- a mixture of 52% nitrogen,
40% 
> argon and 8% carbon dioxide -- that claims to be safe to the
environment 
> and people.

Except for those who need to breathe.

The bottom line is that regardless of the chemical makeup, any gas used
for computer room fire suppression is going to displace the oxygen that
people need to breathe.  What I was told by the experts way back when is
that "if the Halon dumps, hold your breath and leave the room
immediately."  That's why the Halon alarm is loud enough to wake the
dead in the next county.  I heard it once and I was across the hall in
my office.  Fortunately that was only from a careless workman who had
accidentally tripped the fire alarm and an alert operator ran over and
held the override button to prevent the Halon from dumping.  Saved us
$30,000 in 1981.


/Leonard

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