this post was submitted on 18 May 2025
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[–] vvilld@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 3 days ago (4 children)

I'm an electrician who installs (mostly) commercial electrical systems, including fire alarm systems.

In most cases, pulling a fire alarm pull station doesn't set off the fire suppression sprinklers. The pull station just sets off the alarm and calls the Fire Department. Sprinklers aren't automatically activated. The water in the sprinkler pipes is under constant pressure. Sprinkler heads are just nozzles with a little heat-activated stopper in them. When that stopper heats enough, it breaks and opens the nozzle, allowing water to flow (they can also be broken by fucking with them or hitting them with something). But there's no mechanism that sets off other sprinkler heads when one goes off. Each head needs to be heat activated individually to go off. You see in movies and TV all the time someone pulling a pull station and that setting off sprinklers throughout the entire building, or someone lighting a fire in a small closet and that setting off sprinklers throughout the building. That simply isn't how they work.

(note: there are some fire suppression systems which do have remote activation, but those are not standard. They're usually used somewhere like a data center or a lab where there's extremely expensive stuff that you want to be sure doesn't get damaged. And those systems usually use a fire suppression foam or powder, rather than water.)

Also, the water in sprinkler pipes is NASTY. It's been sitting in those pipes for years, sometimes decades. It gets black and sludgy pretty quickly. It stains/destroys anything it touches.

[–] Deebster@infosec.pub 8 points 3 days ago

This reminds me of an episode of Taskmaster where a contestant plans to gain extra time by hitting the alarm in the lift (elevator) but instead of slamming to a halt there's just a little voice message and the lift carries on as usual.

[–] turmacar@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Hackers is a movie without lies and nothing can convince me otherwise.

[–] vvilld@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Most accurate hacking sequences ever. Everyone knows that the most common file structures involve a 3D rendered cybercity.

Also, it's amazing that the most commonly used passwords are still God, Sex, Secret, and Love. Why would people use anything other than just a single word for a password?

[–] TheOakTree@lemm.ee 2 points 2 days ago

They just have a secret kink for becoming compromised by dictionary attacks, specifically.

[–] perviouslyiner@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Deviant talked about a movie idea where setting off the sprinklers might actually be a better bet than fire call points when trying to escape a secure hospital in the US.

[–] vvilld@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What was their reasoning? I'm assuming the scenario is a patient in a secured hospital who isn't supposed to leave trying to escape?

[–] perviouslyiner@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

link (story is near the beginning!)

[–] Twitchy1@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

Came to make sure this was here... But man the panic when you find out the pull station DOES cause a deluge... All those pretty people getting soaked in that rainbow colored water, the smell.