One of my roomies did this one year when I was in college. He’d left his graduation gown hanging on the sprinkler in the bathroom, and he’d been drinking a bit (oops, dry campus, he got in trouble for that). I didn’t see it happen, but I heard the sound of running water and “OH FUCKING SHIT! SHIT!” etc.
They turned off the water pretty quickly, but then apparently someone had flushed a toilet on the other side of the building right before they shut the water off, so when they turned ON the water again, it flooded THAT side.
It was a brand-new dorm, too. Oof.
What’s with the background? That’s not a surface that would be installed in any living space, nevertheless behind a fire sprinkler
It’s a durable wallpaper used in many cheap hotels. It’s also mildly sound dampening.
Looks like it’d be tough to scrub bodily fluids out of it.
anyone who has seen one of these go off knows exactly how horrible it is too. the water in those pipes just sits there, year after year. when they finally get used, or one is damaged, they release a putrid stagnant water that might put out fires well enough, but is filthy and stinks to the high hells.
High hells stink worse or stink better than the low ones?
Oohh, I had this happen once in a building I lived in! Some guy hung his jacket on one of these on the 20th floor and it basically flooded all apartments on that side of the building, 4 per floor, plus the walkways too. When inenterrd the building it was raining inside the lobby. All inner drywalls were, well, not dry anymore, and had to be replaced, all carpets everywhere, all apartments had heavy water damage, people lost half their electronics in the soaking and the rotten egg smelling water basically ruined everything for basically 80 apartments.
I dont know and can’t imagine what happened to the guy, would insurance cover THAT? And that much?
It was a shitshow
If it’s in the US, I’d imagine the tenants are up to insuring their own belongings. They could probably try to sue the guy and started it. The building would probably only be insuring things they’re responsible for as well.
When building fires happen the water damage is often worse than fire damage. Worst is to get the water damage without being able to say that at least it saved some lives in setting of fire.
Worked next door to a company that did home and office disaster cleanup. Most of the goodies in the dumpster were from water, not fire damage. And since insurance was paying, they threw out loads of perfectly good shit! SO loved that dumpster.
What is this? I’m from a place where fire alarms just don’t exist in houses, not a common item available for purchase. So I’ve figured it’s related.
It’s one of those godawful side mounted fire sprinkler heads that seem to appear in every hotel room. Why in the hells they’re always mounted there rather than on the ceiling where they won’t tempt idiots to hang things from them is a mystery.
I have never in life seen a side-mounted sprinkler, thought this pic was of a odd ceiling!
Nope. They’re ubiquitous in American hotels. I suspect they run the plumbing down the inside of the bathroom wall, because they are universally on the wall separating the back of the bathroom from the bedroom area, facing towards the bed(s).
It’s a fire sprinkler with iirc a plug that melts when it gets too hot and releases the water automatically.
The plug material is fragile and hanging things off of it risks damaging it and accidentally unplugging the water, hence the sign
What part of the world are you in where fire alarms are not a thing?
He thought this was in a home and got the wrong term for “sprinkler”.
~
Hotel.
Not an alarm, sprinkler head.
it’s caused by appartments and hotel rooms not having enough ceiling and wall hooks
You have to weigh it against the possibility of people hanging themselves
I live in a loft, a neighbor of mine hung a hammock off the exposed sprinkler pipe… It was a shit show. They are on the hook for a couple hundred thousand dollars in damages to the building and their neighbors units.
This is why renter’s insurance is required where I live. (mid-US)
Sounds like they or their land lord didn’t have insurance
They have insurance, they paid out. Now the insurance company sues the idiot that flooded the building to recoop their losses.
Yeah, so can’t be their insurer
There is no way anyone has that much insurance as a renter. I tried to insure my coin collection (in a rated safe) on top of my renters insurance and the premium was insane. Best you might get is around $25k.
Also they got sued by all the renters around them for damages.
See my other comment, but our very affordable home and contents insurance here covers $20 million in public liability
I have something called liability insurance (Haftpflichtversicherung) and it covers up to 10.000.000 € in damages I could inflict on other peoples property. And it only costs me 75 € a year. Nearly everyone here has such an insurance.
Sounds like a good idea. In Australia we have something like that specifically for cars/driving but it would be cool as a general thing
We do have that as part of our home insurance in Australia
For example with youi you’re covered for $20 million public liability
https://www.youi.com.au/home-insurance/building-and-contents
We have that too as a separate insurance and this is even mandatory. Your not allowed to have a car without that.
You got me to double check whether I actually have liability insurance (aansprakelijkheidsverzekering in Dutch)
Looks like I’m good 👍
aansprakelijkheidsverzekering in Dutch
You have to be kidding, right?
Cool, we don’t have that here. Mores the pity…
I mean… you’re only explaining why insurance is a scam, not why someone would expect coverage.
You’re right in that anyone expecting insurance to cover this doesn’t understand the first thing about insurance, but that’s because insurance is a fucked up garbage industry full of grifters.
i mean this may just be something that people were aware of before it even happened.
but that wouldnt be as funny i have to admit
I do like finding signs warning of a particularly specific problem, always makes one wonder who it was who caused the sign to be installed and how they feel about it. You’ll often find that even generic signs like “Don’t let items burn in the toaster” had a root cause in a specific incident (or string thereof).
As Dave Barry famously noted, the warning found on the back of the box for a Waterpik that says “do not use while sleeping” must have had a doozy behind it.
I’ve absolutely seen people do this, far too often in fact. Every sign has a story.
Someone’s never been to a furry convention.
Been there, seen that.
Thankfully it didn’t go off before someone mentioned it to them.
You’re going to try this OP?
