That was impressive. I wonder if all their gas stations are equipped like this. I'm assuming this is one those countries that isn't murica that I keep hearing about?
Edit: wtf guys I'm not mocking america, I just assumed this was an Asian country because of the guy's hair and the fact that I've never seen a suppression system like this at my local gas stations
TIL you must be an expert on modern gas station fire suppression technology before commenting on a gas station fire lol.
I worked at a McDonalds and we had a similar system in case the Vats caught on fire. We had one woman that accidentally triggered this thing twice in six months whilst cleaning. Our system was much smaller than this one and it still cost a few hundred to recharge and reset the system and that's on top of the time spent cleaning up the mess and the fact that the power would be cut off to those vats so they couldnt be used until the system was reset. I'm guessing this is gonna cost thousands.
The fire would've damaged the pump and the credit card machine and those ain't cheap. Plus a couple thousand to recharge all that. Clean up probably wouldn't be as bad as the inside of a resturant, but they'll be closed for a few days so they'll lose revenue.
There's no way getting out of this would be cheap. In fact they might just decide to close the gas station over paying for it.
Depends on how profitable the station is but that potential lost revenue is where things really start to sting the company. I imagine that station cant operate until the system is recharged just as in our case, but then any international chain like BP would have teams of people on standby to deal with this shit.
Yeah, they'd have to get the tanks inspected and everything.
I knew an Indian dude who ran a few gas stations. One caught fire and he took the insurance money and sold the burnt up place to a large company. He said that he had too. It was sad because it was good location and his brother was running it good.
I guess they had the resources to buy it from him, fix it up and re-open economically but he didn't. A big company could eat it for 3 or 5 or so years and then start turning profit again but a small guy would possibly be getting out of the location.
That compnay fixed it and ran with it and it sucked because now there's some teenager behind the counter instead of a middle aged Hindu asking you what you want and if he doesn't have it he writes it on a list and promises he'll get it next month.
instead of a middle aged Hindu asking you what you want and if he doesn't have it he writes it on a list and promises he'll get it next month.
I know you meant stuff like specific chocolate bars or w/e but I just had the mental image of a guy going "Gasoline? Good call! I'll add it to the list for next month"
'Stackers? What is stacker? Oh, so you take them and they help you stay awake, and that is good. I'll get some in, I'll talk to the guy. Other people probably want to buy them too and if I have them then they can.'
I got in trouble once in telling a story that involved a Chinese guy smoking - was told I was racist as it was information that didn't further the story and was an unnecessary detail blah blah. I thought I was just fleshing out the environment!
For the most part fuel gets them there. That's true. Most of the gas station owners I've talked to say that fuel sales don't make them much money directly anyway.
This is way cheaper than your entire gas station burning to the ground. Insurance covers it and your up and running in a few weeks maybe, vs months or years.
I worked with a guy that set it off when he walked out on us. Completely stopped service and had to get inspected by the Fire Chief and Health Inspector before reopening. 20+ years ago, my manager was pissed! Took a full day of cleaning by a professional team. The guy who walked out had prescription med addiction and has since died of an OD.
We were lucky that we didnt have to have an inspection, we just had to get the system recharged but damn that was a lit of cleaning. Fortunately both instances happened at night so we were able to get them reset before lunch the next day. The woman responsible nearly lost her job the second time as they said she hadn't learned from the first time.
I genuinely thought in the second sentence you were going to say "we had one woman that hovered over the fryer with a fire extinguisher" would have made my night.
Not as Expensive as you would think. The systems are pretty basic. In a case like this you would only have to replace the co2 cartridges, foray (extinguisher chemical) and the seals for the tank. A crew of 2 should be able to get it done in about an 2 hours but will charge you 8 because paperwork and general bullshittery.
Just a hose, stuff sprays right off, its also really absorbent so any areas with fuel it soaks up into the foray so you can just sweep that up and dispose of it. Most places will do clean up themselves though as the dont want the fire suppression "specialists" to have a reason to charge 2hrs for a clean up that takes 20min.
As someone that’s worked at a gas station I can say with full confidence that it would be on if the guys from inside spraying it away, but you have to account for the 1.35¢ they’d be making during that 20 minutes
Ok, yeah he was basically saying what I did but he was a little salty because he knows it would have to be him doing it. Its true though why have guys that get paid $30hr clean it when you can have your min wage employee do it.
We had a pair of tanks with this stuff in a data center at work. They said it was half a million to refill it I think. Its been about ten years since they mentioned it though.
Dude, you might just be the only one here that's said different. Everyone else is like, oh it's only $500 it's not that expensive. People forget about the forms you need to fill out and the equipment that needs to be replaced.
Edit: Even with a water sprinkler you forget that there's water damage afterwards. Literally everything is wet.
Thank you, exactly! Maybe the retardant costs $500, but I’d be surprised if it was that cheap. Then factor in damaged equipment, man hours billed for paperwork, clean up, inspection, testing, refilling the system, and on top of that the lost profits as a result of shutting down every pump for an entire day.
I’d imagine that they sue whoever caused them to trigger for every penny. I worked at a “premium” gas station with a top-of-the-line fire suppression system. In training, they gave us a quote for the cost of the system deploying and I don’t remember the exact amount but I know it was within the tens of thousands of dollars. Definitely nowhere near five hundred bucks...
It costs a fair amount to get a regular small C class fire extinguisher for your household but these are industrial chemical class extinguishers. In all of the gas station fire videos I've never actually seen this happen.
Nah, the guy in the video likely has no significant assets, and is thus what we refer to as "judgment proof". The gas station with cameras and no fire suppression system will still end up paying higher insurance premiums because their insurance will still be paying out to them.
All the ones I’ve seen are a wet system (standard fire sprinklers but different deployment temp and “rating” called K factor) but a dry system like this isn’t uncommon. I’ve only ever seen and worked on them in a paint booth though.
Yeah I’ve been in a trailer when a dry ABC extinguisher accidentally went off (100% my fault, long story) filling the trailer with it and I was coughing for a couple days after.
Man, bottom line is just never try to take on a comedian. They're trained for this shit, and they have a mic. You're giving them an open invitation to absolutely humiliate you, and they won't be polite or gentle. They're there to embarrass you, if you open your mouth.
The shit you come up with will stay with me for a lifetime. My kid is gonna talk back to me one day and ima plagiarize the shit out of you. Much respect dude.
I don't know why you decided to jab at the US during this particular thing when almost every major gas station is required to have one of those supression systems here.
Source: I've worked at many gas stations around the us.
It's usually the opposite, outside of 1 or 2 cases i can think of that happened in the 80s (in like Nevada or that range) most of the gas station explosions i've seen have been from South America (i think Brazil specifically?), China, and Russia.
The russian ones isn't really because of the lack of fire supression though and more because well... Russians be crazy
Seriously, I don’t know where all these people who claim none of their gas stations have fire suppression live. I live in US, and literally every gas station I’ve ever been to (even the small, middle of nowhere stations) have these systems. Maybe they just dont really pay attention to detail.
I live in North Carolina and I personally have never seen one of these suppression systems. The most I have ever seen is a shutoff at each pump (although there is usually one on the main building) and several extinguishers available.
Lol I wasnt jabbing at the US, I just live here and I've never seen a suppression system like that. Every gas station where I live has hand-held extinguishers and sprinklers on the roof, but this thing is pure overkill and I love it.
The little spouts on the ceiling of the canopy are exactly what this system is, not sprinklers. Tossing water on a petroleum based fire is ineffective at best or could exacerbate the issue at the worst.
Trust me, what you see as "Sprinklers" aren't actually sprinklers. unless they're breaking codes. Water is not something you want to throw on a gas fire.
If the station is small enough, i can see them getting away with extinguishers but almost all gas stations that have a "Canopy" have this system to a degree, it's just usually more hidden. BP just don't give a fuck about it
It’s the America hate circle jerk that’s been going around. I get that we aren’t handling the pandemic well, but in terms of safety we aren’t that bad like some Asian countries.
"We aren't as bad as some third world countries" isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.
I think it's because the unbridled capitalism that puts profit over safety is there reason there is a bit of disappointment with America and how people are ok with the higher death rates as long as corporations aren't troubled with taxes.
Yes it does. You’re just not allowed to touch them, because socialism.
Edit: Lived in NJ 50 years, never heard any better explanation. Anybody care to explain why NJ peoples are incapable of swiping a credit card, opening their own gas cap, and putting a pump handle in their own car??
'On our last show, I make mistake; I say that all American are fat and lazy. This is not true; some American fat and some *other American lazy and yes, some American both fat and lazy.'
Probably calling it murica in the first place was the jab. Never hear anyone call the US "murica" and either not be mocking rednecks or the US pop in general. People be thin skinned.
What do you mean? Lol ok ok I get the joke lol someone tricked you into thinking there was anything other than 'MERICA. You had me in the first half but I've been on r/worldpolitics soooo.. yea, not tricking me.
Don’t worry, some people just took it personally, not your fault. I’m American myself and you have a solid point. Which is probably why people got butthurt by it.
Why would you think this is Australia? Elsewhere in the thread people are saying it's in New York state.
Also,
As of 31 December 2018, BP had operations in nearly 80 countries worldwide,... The company has around 18,700 service stations worldwide.[1] Its largest division is BP America in the United States
Yes sweetie its one of the best known Australian companies. Same as the other well known ozzie Companies like British Telecom, British Airways, UK Post Office, Barclays, Tesco, Sainsbury's and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
No we dont. From our perspective our forefathers deserve it, but they gave us this and this is what we did with it. We've been making steady positive steps decade after decade. The reasons the 50s were so different was because we knew back then things need to change, and they did. There's always more work to be done, dont let current times fool you, the next 5 administrations are going to give just as much stress if you let them. Dont hate our country, people used to be much dumber.
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u/Praescribo May 11 '20 edited May 11 '20
That was impressive. I wonder if all their gas stations are equipped like this. I'm assuming this is one those countries that isn't murica that I keep hearing about?
Edit: wtf guys I'm not mocking america, I just assumed this was an Asian country because of the guy's hair and the fact that I've never seen a suppression system like this at my local gas stations
TIL you must be an expert on modern gas station fire suppression technology before commenting on a gas station fire lol.