Never push the Big Red Button (New York City subway failure)

Thu Sep 16 05:25:54 UTC 2021

----- On Sep 15, 2021, at 9:08 PM, bzs bzs at theworld.com wrote:

Hi,

> People don't suffocate from Halon dumps, I've been thru a couple (not
> me personally but staff, I was in my office but arrived quickly.)
> 
> What is somewhat dangerous about Halon (or likely more modern) fire
> suppression dumps is they create like 90mph winds so you're in some
> danger from something like a pencil nearby. Hence, cover your face
> with your arms or a coat or similar if one is imminent.

I can speak from experience. Back in the early 2000s I was working for
a small regional ISP that provided colocation services in the same
building as the office was. We had an Inergen system and I had the
honor of being in the room when it suddenly went off without warning.

The noise and air movement was similar to the one time I rode a
motorcycle on the autobahn and hit 200mph. Not fun. Afterwards I felt
slightly lightheaded, but was otherwise ok. Not that my boss cared,
he lighted a piece of paper outside of the room, walked in, and noted
that, after the flames died out, "hey, it works".

Thanks,

Sabri