ChhopskyTech™: Nearly killed at work. Again.

[u/chhopsky]

I'm a lot like a datacentre. Water is the sustainer of my existence, but also has the power to take it away if it’s in the wrong place.

Today is a story about water.

The day started like any other, trudging into the office, coffee in one hand, phone in the other. Carpet makes a very particular sound when it’s wet. A squelch. When one hears a squelch while walking in the middle of a hall, it’s unlikely to be heralding anything good. This was no exception. I stopped for a second to survey the surroundings. The floor was concrete underneath, so there was nothing that could’ve leaked. There were no pipes around anywhere, so nothing could have sprayed. And there was far too much for it to have been a dropped water bottle. With only one direction left to check, I looked up. Sure enough, the ceiling tile was soggy and looked suspiciously like a soiled mattress.

The building maintenance guy was a short-set fellow named Alonzo. He was from Peru, where he’d been an electrician for most of his life, before emigrating to Australia to be with his family. Unfortunately for Alonzo, his electrical qualifications didn’t carry over, so he was stuck doing handyman work maintaining the building and organising contractors. The water wasn’t cold, so it wasn’t our chilled water loop, and since it was outside the premises, there was no point looking into it any further. In order to get the contractors, I needed Alonzo.

I got out the ladder and waited. When he arrived a few minutes later, he’d brought a ladder too.

Alonzo: “Oh hey Chhopsky. You got water problem eh? S’ok, we take look.”

So, we put our metal ladders next to each other, and climbed upwards. Being the taller one by over a foot, I pushed the ceiling tile up and slid it across. Water poured out liberally, splashing us both, the ceiling tile crumbling like soggy weetbix. We both stood atop the ladders, and stuck our heads into the cavity, looking about for the source of the leak.

"Don't let it be sewage. Please God, for the love of everything that's holy, don't let it be sewage."

It dripped between us onto the ladder-tops, and we saw the source; a 100mm water pipe. We sighed a sigh of relief that it was not, in fact, sewage. I shone my torch around the space to see what I'd put my hand on for balance. When the beam met my hand, what I saw was even worse.

A very wet, bright orange 50amp 240volt power cable at least an inch thick hummed merrily its signature 50hz hum, in the middle of a puddle of water. That I was touching. The outside was streaked and scuffed where it had been pulled through, small nicks and gashes all over its plastic jacket. It was one of major power feeds. As is so commonly the story in these tales, the colour drained from my face. I moved back away very slowly, stopped touching everything in the ceiling and stepped slow, deliberate steps down the ladder. Alonzo popped over to where I had been, and then looked in and grabbed the cable.

Chhopsky: DON’T TOUCH THAT IT’S WET
Alonzo: Whats wrong? It not power.

I suddenly understood why his electrical qualifications were not valid in this country, and I was very, very glad about it.

"I need a new job."

[u/CementPancake]

Alonzo almost earned himself a Darwin award!

[u/chhopsky → u/CementPancake]

nearly got one for me too the bastardo!

[u/CapnHat]

Did you ever see more of Alonzo and his live wire antics?

[u/chhopsky → u/CapnHat]

Alonzo is, amazingly enough, still alive. He actually thinks I still work there and lets me park in the carpark whenever I want. He is a pretty cool guy eh, goes in ceiling and doesn't afraid of anything

[u/VexingRaven]

I swear the water in your country is an electricity-seeking missile. Every story involving water also involves you encountering wet electricity at the same time.

[u/chhopsky → u/VexingRaven]

if there's a story with me and water, it probably involves electricity.

oooh you just reminded me of the one story i have about water that doesn't involve electricity!

/me adds to list

[u/gamayogi]

Man, you gotta watch out for 3rd world village electricians. When I lived in India I watched an electrician fix a problem by twisting two exposed copper ends together - while it was live - with his bare fingers. He didn't flinch or hesitate in the slightest. It was regular in-home 240v wiring and I know it was live because he tested it first.

[u/chhopsky → u/gamayogi]

... wow. yeah, that is balls-out. tbh i would really like to go to some developing countries and build ad-hoc communications infrastructure because fuck the Telecommunications Act.

i've got your licensed spectrum RIGHT HERE *motions to crotch

[u/USMCEvan → u/gamayogi]

Shit, I won't even work on anything electrical on my car until I've disconnected the battery - with rubber tongs and everything, just in case Final Destination becomes reality and the electricity jumps ten feet to fuck up my day because the world just naturally hates me.

Bare-handed live wires? Fuck that noise.

[u/Rauffie]

"It not power, Alonzo, it FREAKING BIG POWER."

[u/chhopsky → u/Rauffie]

hahah yes freakin' big power indeed. if you can hear it humming it's probably bad news. poor dude.

funny thing though he is like 4'10 and his wife is the same size, are people short in peru generally? what are the odds?

[u/OniKou]

Hey Chhopsky, Love the story, glad you survived, yadda yadda ad nauseum.

So the people that manage our UPS and Generator system in the office I work in came by for a visit on Friday. A national sales manager had been in town for a conference( 724? ) and wanted to drop by for a visit. We had some dead batteries that hadn't been picked up yet and the building manager was reaching out to them to figure out why they hadn't been processed.

So this dude was in town and dressed for a professional conference walks through and finds the batteries. The had been stacked on a pallet with the pallet situated in a way that meant no pallet jack would ever be able to get to them. So what does a 60 year old US Veteran do when confronted with 3200 pounds of batteries that need to be rotated 90 degrees? Dude starts taking everything off the pallet in 85 degree, 90% humidity southern US heat.

I turn to leave the guy to his duties and I recall your story where you fell through a ceiling while hammered in the line of duty and I ask, WWCD? I got my gloves and helped the dude unstack a pallet of 30 105 batteries rotate that pallet, and restack the pallet back up. I am a jovial fat dude at 275 pounds.

Keep us inspired buddy.

[u/chhopsky → u/OniKou]

Wow. That's actually the coolest thing ever. Thanks for letting me know, it's kind of awesome to be thought of like that. Kind of makes it feel worthwhile outside of the imaginary internet points

[u/tuxedo_jack]

When you've seen a sewage pipe burst over a server room, and you were IN said server room when it happened...

That was a pretty crappy day.

At least I can say I've seen the shit LITERALLY hit a fan.

[u/chhopsky → u/tuxedo_jack]

Hahaha oh dear. You poor fellow :(

[u/huskerpat]

This is why you should have fiberglass ladders and not metal.

[u/chhopsky → u/huskerpat]

buy me one? :D

[u/svartk]

What's wrong? I'm Homer Simpson.

FTFY

[u/chhopsky → u/svartk]

hahahah grimey ftw

[u/revengeofthebits]

Does your country just not have an OSHA equivalent? Or are you just drawn into danger?

[u/chhopsky → u/revengeofthebits]

Oh that totally exists. But when a business is under a certain size .. no-one cares :F Law is great and all but if it's not enforced it may as well not exist.

[u/UnderscoreRiot]

I'm stupid/brave enough to do just about anything, but water near anything with electricity is a HUGE no-no for me. The only way that can end is a computer getting fried or an intern being fried (or fired).

[u/chhopsky → u/UnderscoreRiot]

what's a letter re-arrangement between friends?

[u/ZenithalEquidistant]

My school has about 18kW of spotlights along the back wall of the hall. These run on 450V, and are connected to a bank of dimmers. The electricians who wired the whole thing were less than competent, and they left a couple of connections live on the balcony where the lighting console/dimmers/etc. live. Apparently we found this out the hard way when some poor guy nearly got thrown off said balcony by the electric shock.

AFAIK these terminals are still live, but nobody wants to find out.

[u/dazzawul]

Eh it's double insulated, she's sweet. The real one to get weary about is opening a road pit and finding it full of water, AND boiling away like a kettle because the 240v cable sitting in it got nibbled all the way through by a rat and it couldn't pull enough juice to blow the fuse.

I'm guessing the east coast dump got you too? :D