[TenTec] equipment storage?

[Stuart Rohre]

Thanks Al for asking about cinder block walls.

They are more expensive than using thicker sheet rock frame wood 
construction, but you are right, they resist fires well.

We had a garage and shop catch fire at the local Children's home, 
destroying a bus stored there.  But, the cinder block walls held up, and 
they put new doors on the building and are still using it after 
rewiring, etc.,  some 40 years later.

Also, our state Fire Training School at TX A&M Univ., uses cinder block 
buildings to emulate both a single story home and another is a two story 
home, with concrete stairs, so that Firemen may participate in live fire 
training.  Fires are created on metal racks inside rooms and you have to 
advance a hose line charged with water up the stairs, and into the room 
with the fire, and extinguish that fire by the indirect attack of 
directing fog nozzle toward the ceiling above the fire.  Such a good 
attack can quench a rather large room fire in about 4 seconds, if 
adequate water is flowing into the fog nozzle.

Radio content:  We look for a main cut off near the electric meter, or 
if it is just a meter, we pull the meter as soon as FD arrives to remove 
hazards of flowing water onto live electrical panels and wiring.

Residents can help protect their house by NOT blocking access to the 
electric meter or to the gas meter, for that must be turned off for 
safety early on as well.

-Stuart
K5KVH