Frozen pipes cause alarms

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33883, 1 July 1975, Page 1

Frozen pipes cause alarms

Countless false alarms caused by freezing fire systems have kept the Christchurch Fire Brigade busy over the last few r days. On Sunday the brigade answered 30 false calls, mostly for sprinkler systems; and yesterday it answered almost as many again. The faults occur when water under pressure freezes in pipes leading to sprinklers. This causes expansion and cracks the pipes. When room heating is turned on during the day the ice melts and water escapes through the crack, lowering the pressure and setting off the alarm in the fire station.

As sprinkler systems are used mainly in big buildings all the appliances are sent each time an alarm is set off. In cities like Dunedin, where temperatures are low more frequently, the water is replaced with highpressure air in the pipes as far back as the street main,

preventing this type of false alarm. Heavy frosts in North Canterbury have had unusual side-effects. A patron who asked for a whisky and water at the isolated Hurunui Tavern early yesterday was pushing his luck. The publican recorded a frost of 13deg. yesterday — the eighth successive frost exceeding lOdeg. The premises had no cold water supply, and not until late in the day was even the hot water supply made to work. To satisfy patrons who wanted water with their drink, the publican had to cool jugs of hot water in the refrigerator. As well, the publican’s three cows had to wait until late morning for milking because the machine had frozen. Further inland, the Hamner Springs Volunteer Fire Brigade was called to a ! false alarm at Queen Mary Hospital where for the second successive day the automatic alarm system was affected by frost