Hangar Suppression systems - Accidental release

[Andarcomodante]

Hi All,

Anyone have any experience of hangar fire suppression systems (sprinklers, foam etc.) being accidentally released? Seems to me there that there may be more damage caused than avoided.

Cheers,

Andarcomodante.

[AARON O'DICKYDIDO]

If you conduct a search on PPRuNe you may well find some items of intersest.


Aaron.

[TinyTim2]

Happened at LHR many moons ago , caused a lot of damage to a B757 on C check at the time . It was made a lot worse be ause the spray was not water but a fire retardent containing ureic acid !!!

[g4phil]

You mean like this:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/18/article-0-132850E6000005DC-69_634x467.jpg

Flying in the clouds? NO... U.S. Air Force accidentally fills entire hangar with foam | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2146454/Flying-clouds-NO--U-S-Air-Force-accidentally-fills-entire-hangar-foam.html)

Foam, foam on the range: Abilene airport hangar accidentally filled with eight feet of foam » Abilene Reporter-News (http://www.reporternews.com/news/2012/jun/06/foam-foam-on-the-range-abilene-airport-hangar-of/)

[grounded27]

I walked into work one day looking at a few feet of foam on the Hangar floor. Supposedly the county was doing their required annual test of the system and deployed it accidentally, it hit 6 feet at it's peak with the doors open. Bugger was the agent was a corrosive, the county payed for the cleanup.

[Krystal n chips]

I understand that, not long after the opening in a fanfare of trumpets ( quite literally) a large white elephant "somewhere in the North of England", did suffer a demonstration of the fire suppression system.

The, lets say, novel, excuse was that it was caused by the devoted work force which subsequently proved to be a complete fallacy as the cause was a glitch in the hardware, subsequently rectified.

Never daunted, some years later they went for a reprise. In this case, it would have been human being induced.

Having, as always, done some detailed research ( as in zero) , a Dutch carrier arrived for a spot of TLC...slight problem with the water tank...needed to be replenished and flushed through a couple of times....hence a source of water was required, this problem being known about prior to arrival please note.

The collective intellect of the previously mentioned researchers decided to use...the fire hose in the hangar.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your viewpoint, with the hose actually deployed and ready to use, somebody with a brain pointed out that, once you squeezed the handle,, not only would water flow, but, quelle surprise, the suppression system would also activate. :ugh:

[Andarcomodante]

Thanks for that everyone. Some interesting examples there to be sure. The flip side, I suppose, would be to ask where suppression or sprinklers had demonstrably saved damage to aircraft.