A Fire Sprinkler in Action....
Most people have never seen a sprinkler go off and snuff out a fire.
My nephew is a fireman in Maryland, who works in the UL testing facility of the
Maryland Fire & Rescue Institute and he lit up a fire for me in the lab.
I watched oil-fed flames quickly blossom and start crawling across the ceiling and then - poof - the sprinkler kicked in when a pre-set temperature was reached and the fire was stopped cold. Impressive.
He's a good fireman and a great instructor to others. He set up a traveling exhibit for County Fairs where the public could look into a typical motel room, watch drapes catch fire and see a sprinkler quickly douse the flames.
Hopefully THAT is the only time someone sees that scary situation!
(Click on photo for details.)
Labels: fire sprinkler, firemen, Maryland, MFRI
Now THIS rings a bell....
Before YOUR next trip to San Francisco, go online and arrange to join a group of 12 other zany visitors to put on firemen's coats and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge in a shiny red 1950s restored fire engine. The husband and wife owners even live in a former firehouse.
They keep ringing the bell, hit the siren (once) and you wave and smile at all the people waving and smiling at you as you rumble up and down the streets of San Francisco then race across the bridge, looking up at the fog shrouded towers.
After a stop in Sausalito to take pictures with the bridge in the background - fog permitting - you come back across the bridge and eventually end up back at the embarcadaro.
We even passed a REAL fire engine and the crew stopped rolling up hoses for a moment to give us a friendly wave.
I'm still downloading pictures I took there, in Los Angeles and in Denver and soon will have albums set up online to give you ideas for planning YOUR next vacation out west.
(Click on pictures to enlarge for detail.)
Labels: fire engine, firemen, Golden Gate Bridge, vacation
