It's not *that* hot...

We work in an office close to one of the main machines and often feel the floor vibrate as the machine switches modes and so on. So when we felt a large "thump" this afternoon we weren't concerned and duly carried on beavering away. A few moments later one of my colleagues remarked, "Oh, we've just lost the network", "...and the phones," came a plaintive cry from the other side of the office "...humph, we've lost the switch, I'll go and check it out."

To fully appreciate the next photo you have to know that we work on the second floor and 56 steps from the ground.

He came back in to the office from the top of the stairs - "I don't think I want to check the switch..."


Yes, that really is 10" deep water, and, hot water too - and it's on the first floor. The Fire Main to the machine hall had fractured and the water was flowing in so fast that it couldn't escape down either set of stairs fast enough so it simply flooded the first floor.

We left via the fire escape.

Here are some pictures taken *after* the water had been turned off.

Ground floor back stairs.

Under the machine hall

The water has also ingressed the 6.6Kv sub-station which rather fortunately tripped and took out most of the machine hall. Let's just say, production had an un-planned shut.

The offending Fire Main

Although today was (probably) the hottest day of the year at 32ºC in sunny Kent, cooling down this way was not on our list...