Fire Extinguishers as weapons

[Tom W]

http://www.info4fire.com/news-content/full/fire-alarm-activated-as-man-hurls-extinguishers-from-high-rise-office

Make of it what you will

The man is understood to have set the fire alarm off at the 17-storey Castlemead building in Bristol and made his way up as staff were evacuated.

He then ran amok, wrecking computers and smashing doors and windows before hurling office equipment including desks and a printer into the street below.

Most of the debris landed on the canopy of the reception area but several people and a number of firefighters were injured.

Police arrested a 49-year-old man at the scene on suspicion of burglary and common assault after he was restrained by a fireman and a Castlemead security guard.

One eyewitness tweeted: "Fire extinguishers and chairs flying out of castlemead tower.. Apparently a banker is having a meltdown."

The incident happened at around 7.20pm on Tuesday evening.

It is believed the man ran amok on the 10th floor, home to financial services firm Equiniti.

A worker, who did not want to be named, said: "Everybody who comes in has to flash their pass to get through a turnstile, but apparently a guy managed to breach the security on the front desk.

"The first thing anyone knew about it was the fire alarm going off, so everybody exited.

"Everyone got outside to the fire assembly point out the front, and then a fire extinguisher came flying out through the window.

"There was a lot of glass and over the next few minutes a computer, a printer, a desk and a chair came out through the same window of the 10th floor.

"It hit the canopy at the front of the building, and some of it was right outside the front of the building. In the car park next door someone's car also got hit by a fire extinguisher.

"There were quite a few people in the building at the time, and some of them got hit by a few bits of debris. Someone got injured, but I am not sure how badly.

"Apparently someone was letting off the fire extinguishers all over the place, and when he threw them out they were still going off and spinning all over the place as they fell.

"I have got no idea who it is but there is general speculation that he is an ex-employee of one of the offices in the building."

[AnthonyB]

It's a bit unfair highlighting the extinguishers as anything else to hand also got chucked out.

Normally you come across them being stolen, set off or used as tools to help break in by burglars, as a weapon it's less heard off although this chap obviously watched the student riots.

[colin todd]

Thomas,  Do you think he was frustrated at the fire doors in the building always closing when he sang loudly???

[Tom W]

No he was probably annoyed at doors swinging shut with no audible or visual warning.

[colin todd]

He should have replaced the batteries then!!!!!

[Tom W]

There will always be an audible and visual warning before doors with our products on close 

We listen to our feedback 

[colin todd]

Thomas, here is some feedback. What the world needs is a wireless swing free. 

[Tom W]

The mechanical product of the year and best passive protection product of the year is just that!

 

[colin todd]

Radio linked Thomas, not triggered by loud singing.

[Tom W]

Its coming Colin, its coming........

[kurnal]

Why cannot the audio coupled device be refined to learn the sound of the fire alarm and thus develop immunity to Colins catawalling?

After all radio linked systems are only successful because they can be tuned to filter out extraneous transmissions.....oh look the phones  switched off Colins pacemaker again.

[Tom W]

The stand alone radio systems aren't so much fine tuned they just have a higher tolerance so the decible they react to would be set to much higher. The transmitter would be placed very close to the sounder to achieve a suitable decible level.

The problem we have with introducing more and more technology into the units is the power drain on the units. We have to acheive a a lot of cycles to pass EN1155 and so we need to keep as much power as possible. 

[colin todd]

I once attended a murder scene, where the police thought the Dorgards were somehow tuned to the fire alarm system. Happily, one of the SOCOs was using her IPOD as she worked, so I was able to demonstrate the contrary.

[Tom W]

*other MP3 players are available

[colin todd]

..but there is only one Dorgard.