511

[Stop Laughing]

No football to watch here tonight...

A 511 (5 alarm fire, the highest alarm possible) downtown at a 45 floor high rise on the 29th floor has been going for more than the last 3 hours. Over 1/3 of the entire Chicago Fire Department is there (approximating 300 firefighters). I think my mother's got some clients in that building (LaSalle Bank building, 135 S LaSalle) and a lot of international banking is done actually on that floor. It's still spreading and not under control, even after 3 hours... Makes you appreciate the great job by the fire department as there's not even been any serious injuries or fatalities yet.

 

[Dave]

Twelve firefighters were among those injured, and eight of them were in serious condition, Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said. Most injuries were the result of smoke inhalation, he said.

guess the fire got real nasty.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/06/chicago.fire/index.html

 

[Inkara1]

You missed a hell of a football game. Dallas 43, Seattle 38. I missed almost all of it, too, due to class.

One thing the story failed to point out, something which Prof mentioned about the World Trade Center, something which makes perfect sense, is that the necessary equipment/plumbing to have enough pressure ready to feed water to sprinklers on the 40th floor of a skyskraper would be a logistical nightmare at best.

 

[Gonz]

Engineers do outstanding works. They can put 50 working urinals, sinks & drinking fountains per floor but not overhead, drip-style sprinklers?

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

Heard about this fire on the radio news this AM. Musta been a bad one.

Chicago and fire have a bit of history, I do believe...

 

[Luis G]

Engineers do outstanding works. They can put 50 working urinals, sinks & drinking fountains per floor but not overhead, drip-style sprinklers?

They use tanks with water are on the highest floor. The problem of taking it up is far more complicated than making it go down.

 

[Professur]

The 21 story hotel we worked at had a three stage system for supplying water to the upper floors. You move a little water at low pressure up to holding tanks every 7 floors. Then use a higher pressure pump to move water from that resevoir to the 7 floors it serves. The problem is volume. Every single room flushing at once wouldn't strain that system. but sprinklers put out gallons/second. That means a resevoir tank of hundreds of thousands of gallons. And it means space to put that tank, and structure to support it. At best, you can plan to operate the sprinklers on 3 floors simultaneously for 30mins.

 

[MrBishop]

The 21 story hotel we worked at had a three stage system for supplying water to the upper floors. You move a little water at low pressure up to holding tanks every 7 floors. Then use a higher pressure pump to move water from that resevoir to the 7 floors it serves. The problem is volume. Every single room flushing at once wouldn't strain that system. but sprinklers put out gallons/second. That means a resevoir tank of hundreds of thousands of gallons. And it means space to put that tank, and structure to support it. At best, you can plan to operate the sprinklers on 3 floors simultaneously for 30mins.

Nah...the main problem is that space costs money and money is far mroe important than clients whose money you already have banked.

 

[Nixy]

Nah...the main problem is that space costs money and money is far mroe important than clients whose money you already have banked.

That, and the fact that a GIGANTIC tank of water on top of a 40 story building will cause major structural hurtles to overcome...you get some wind that causes the building to sway and then the water sways and the momentum of that much water swaying...the stabilizers that would be needed would be PHENOMINAL...not to mention the structure woudl have to carry that much extra weight.

 

[MrBishop]

That, and the fact that a GIGANTIC tank of water on top of a 40 story building will cause major structural hurtles to overcome...you get some wind that causes the building to sway and then the water sways and the momentum of that much water swaying...the stabilizers that would be needed would be PHENOMINAL...not to mention the structure woudl have to carry that much extra weight.

Don't they use water as a stabilizer in some towers? I can swear that I saw something like that being used in high earthquake areas.

 

[Professur]

Earthquakes and wind aren't the same thing. Much different frequencies. Much different duration.

 

[tonksy]

maybe if the buildings had better sprinklers or had some kind of chemical (afff, do they use that outside of the military?) fire suppression system then things might not have been so bad. fires harder to fight when it's, you know, big.