"I work for a school that feeds 800+ kids a day..."

I'll bet food is delivered frequently, almost daily. I hope you don't get caught there right BEFORE delivery...

Sue

Hum don't work in an office thank God, have worked a few blizzards as i'm a fire Lt. in a mid sized city in the east on a Great Lake.

Did not read all of this, but any office building has 1,000s of gallons of water in the standpipe and sprinkler systems alone. Plus many have those 5 gallon cooler things in closets .

Last one i worked we got close to 3 feet during the day and pretty much everyone went home at the end of the day , it took me 10 minutes longer i think.I guess if it kept up some would maybe stay over night .

Trust me you burn even a small amount of anything and you'll fill the place with smoke.....

set off sprinklers and now be wet and cold. Do not count on fire ems.leo responce either .

Our trucks ran all day non stop, and guess what we got stuck in the snow too, we had to keep sending another unit, we were running out of o2 on ems calls before the amubulance got there as well . Cars fire burned to the ground and were out before we arrived......

you will be on your own.

A close "real world" one that happened at a lot of office - the 2003 (I think that was the year) blackout

In HYC, where something like 1 MILLION people get in by mass transit, there was no way to get home - aka "you're stuck at the office"

I know the crew where I work headed for the server room, where the UPS/generators kept things cool, and there was plenty of water

I'm not 100% sure what they did RE food

I personally would not be drinking the water from the sprinkler pipes. That stuff would probably kill you faster than anything. It sits in the pipes for years. I've seen the muck that comes out of a sprinkler pipe when it's taken apart, no way I'm drinking that water.

You could always start a fire outside the building, maybe a loading dock area or something or a very small, contained fire in a warehouse area. The sprinklers being activated by heat, rather than smoke, I think that would be possible to accomplish.

With a high ceiling, like a warehouse, stratification should come into play. As the hot gases rise through cooler air, they expand, lose heat, and cool. Then cooler air becomes entrained in the gas plume. The plume cools as it rises to where it's at the same temperature and buoyancy as the surrounding air, it no longer rises. It just spreads out horizontally, even though it's not at ceiling level.

I know you probably already knew this - this was just info for those who don't.

And 90%-95% of the time, my office is my company van.

Interesting point re wet standpipe/sprinkler systems. I wonder if there's an anti-corrosion chemical additive in these?

That crap comes out black with rust and funk. Dehydration is preferable in my book.

Yeah, I had someone accidentally break a sprinkler head off in my office once in 2001. COLD, WET, NASTY!

Great thread and great responses

Nothing for me to add except for a question. In real life it doesn't go as smooth as doing this or deciding that. if the group in the building is rather large , then some will not follow your decisions or may even challenge you, regardless of what the boss says. The boss may even have different plansd of his own like the ship captain who deserted eveyone and escaped in a lifeboat ( forgot the exact details).

But for the sake of the scenario and to be able to fcous on priorities, let's say that some group or groups decided to follow their own plans by leaving the building , or calling other from other buildings to join or whatever.

Then what ?

I think for myself if someone decided to leave I won't care. But if someone is calling others whom I don't know, I would be careful not to reveal everyuthing I have stashed in the building for my own survival. I do have a small stash of food/drink/tools that will not support many people.

About fire, it is not that critical in our office building. It is a modern building but we have some spacious "balconies" and some metal waste baskets that so appropraitely are used for "paper recycling". They will be already full of waste paper ready for burining. We can use for fire if we had to cook, though unlikely. But who knows we may need to boil water for sterilization.

interesting, everytime I've seen them flowing its been clear,maybe the bad water is gone by then. Hum. My thought though was more standpipes as that takes a mear turning of a wheel in the stairwell.Those pipes are much larger and are verticle so any junk i would figure would not be lying in the pipe.

I'll say everytime I've opened up a line running off a standpipe its looked good to me. We connect one floor below the fire,stretch the line up the stairs,crack the line to bleed it off then attack the fire. In fact a month a go we practiced using a 2 1/2 off a standdpipe . all the water was clear. Oh this was done on the roof( they get amd when you destroy the office) and more of advancing a 2 1/2 up the stairs and out on to the 'floor" ( roof) but we did flow water and it was clear .

Perhaps these places where its black and full of gunk should do a little PM and water tests and flows . I'd have real concerns about hoseline pressures and even if it'll flow at all.

Ya I was not clear about heat/smoke sprinklers . I meant two things.The smallest fire will make a lot of smoke,and two if you some how set them off( to big a fire) you'll be wet as well.

But then when the FD shows up we could give you some water I guess.....

Could that have been a dry pipe system? The ones that have a gas in them that bleeds off thus allowing the water in. I know in the building I took my unintended shower the water looked closer to used motor oil than water. It was a wet pipe system.

And the one day I had to dress nice too....

I don't know anything about those pipes, but if you had them, and if you might need the water in them, would it be a good idea for someone to drain and refill them periodically (like once a month)?

Sue