Always Check For Gas Fumes Before You Get Under Way!

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Check Your Bilges for gas!

For all of you that practice the fine art of the “Lift and Sniff” as in lifting your hatches and sniffing the bilge so it does not blow up o you.. I have this story from our local TV station.. Breaking News..

Exploding Toilet Sends Woman To Hospital

WASHINGTON (WUSA) — A woman was sent to the hospital after a toilet exploded at the General Services Administration (GSA) Building in DC, building officials said.

DC Fire Spokesman Pete Piringer confirmed the woman was taken the the hospital with serious, non-life-threatening injuries.

The GSA Regional office building employees were sent a memo, warning them to not use the bathrooms in the building, because the plumbing may be dangerous. The building is on 7th and D SW.

“DO NOT flush toilets or use any domestic water. Due to a mechanical failure, there is high air pressure in the domestic water system that resulted in damage to toilets. The engineering staff is working to correct the issue,” the memo said. “There has been damage to flushed toilets that has resulted in injuries. We will announce when the issue is resolved.”

 

I cant make this up.. You can see the original story here on WUSA news here in DC…

8 replies
  1. Al Benton
    Al Benton says:

    Leave it to the U.S. General Services Administration to have such an emergency in one of their own buildings…

    Obama’s new job bill may need to include a few new sign companies to produce “Stand Back Before Flushing” or “Wear Goggles, Hard Hat and Steel Pants Before Entering” signs for all of their facilities world wide. And a “Danger! Toilet May Explode” sign over each unit. They’ll need to write Safety Instructions on Proper Flushing Techniques, have orientation sessions before using a toilet, maybe even have more security guards to check employees ability to flush toilets safely and effectively.

  2. Al Benton
    Al Benton says:

    It’s probably not all that uncommon. High rise buildings (7 stories or more) usually use a water pressure booster pump to get water up to the floors, then use pressure reducers to bring the pressure back down on the upper floors. If one of these blows, the floor and all of its toilets gets full pressure at the flush valves. What ya end up with is a very efficient Beday!

    • Al Benton
      Al Benton says:

      Well, that was the standard ash tray of the 70’s and 80’s. These are modern versions that have 3 settings; standard flush, beday setting and enema setting where seat belts are required before flushing and are a bit more costly. Seat belts are optional.

  3. Don vogt
    Don vogt says:

    Hell, Al, I guess a little scatological humor now and then is ok. I think all the toilets back there should be set on the “enema mode.” then as they say, those people could be buried in a matchbox.

  4. Al Benton
    Al Benton says:

    Don, thanks. In that case, what I meant to add was the seat belts were omitted from the contract in a brilliant budget move, saving the government 99.95 per unit (installed). The resulting Chang Order for this omission to the original Purchase Order averaged out to right at 100.00 per unit plus restocking charges, plus field changes to remove seat belt fastening hardware, plus additional labor for filling holes left in the units, plus epoxy painting of the filler material, plus removing and regrouting the custom ceramic floor edging that was damaged, plus clean-up, plus a general overhead charge by the General Contractor for delaying completion of the project, total Change Order 871.69 per unit. Oh, and plus the bonus to the government employee of the month who saved the government 99.95 per unit.

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