USAF Hangar fire suppression system accidentaly activated.

[rogwar]

I was at a base where a Titan ICBM blew up cause someone dropped a tool and the nuke was flung out the tube into the farmers field.

That was in Arkansas.

[M0nkey_Man]

 

[F22RaptorDude]

Well, someone go get a mop..

[FiLtH]

     Im sure Ive told this story before.  Back in around 1985/86 I had just got back to Dyess AFB from Sheppard after a class on fire suppression. Great class, lots of info.

    I see black smoke come from the pump house across the street from a large hangar we had. The pumps drained the 250,000 gal tank beside it, and sent it across the street to the deluge system in the hangar. No foam, just water in that system. The place had C130s and other planes with panels all removed. No clue what the price tag on that was.

    I was selected to reset the valve after everything got back to normal. Seemed like every Colonel on the base was looking over my shoulder.

[Rino]

     Back in the late 80s we had a foam system "malfunction" at Teterboro.  The problem was it was animal blood based foam so it stunk up
the hangar for months.  At least the new stuff is soap based so it does much less material damage.  That hangar at Morristown had 7 aircraft
in it, which almost all of them with open doors <it was a normal work day for the mx departments>.  Fortunately the only real expensive parts
were the two bizjets on the ramp whose trips we had to cover due to the foam.  Think it was about $200-300K, but not sure.

[Rino]

     Oh and in keeping with the miltary theme, we had an F4 land with an engine fire at Moody back in 82-3.  It just looked like heavy smoke
until the rollout, then the entire aft end up to the rear cockpit went up like a roman candle.

     The part that impressed me was the WSO <backseater> jumping off the aircraft <10 foot up mind you> while it was still rolling.  He was a
good 200 yards from the bird before the pilot could get it stopped and run himself.  I guess his motivation was a little.....err..closer  

     Fortunately the crew made it out with no injuries, but the bird was a total loss...nothing the fire fighters could do.

[nrshida]

The foam is deployed from below?

[zack1234]

At least they know it works pretty well

[Rino]

The foam is deployed from below?

      No, it drops from the ceiling onto the floor, then fills up.  Morristown didn't have a deluge system, although some hangars did.
We had two canisters connected to the water mains, those pictures were the result of one canister going off.  As I understand the
deluge system, it's a one shot event.

[nrshida]

How come the tops of the planes and the engine snozzles on the A-10 are clean?

[Rich52]

That was in Arkansas.

I know. I was there. Tho I wasnt in SAC at the time and had nothing to do with it. The base went Ape manure that I remember. We called such thing "Broken Arrows" and they were probably the most, and worst, critical things that could ever happen.

[Seanaldinho]

How come the tops of the planes and the engine snozzles on the A-10 are clean?

Of foam? Who knows.

If you mean of just dirt and grime this happened in the climate control hanger (they can simulate up to 120* down to -30* and make it snow  ) do they may have been cleaned prior to going in the hanger.