Dr-Fix-It! Notebook Archive:
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John arrived at the back dock just as the City Gas Service truck pulled up. Two men in gray uniforms jumped out of the truck and ran to the main gas valve. They made sure the gas was turned off and then they padlocked the valve shut and decorated it with a red tag. City Gas Service's red tag procedure was very strict. The red tag and the padlock meant that the repaired gas line would need to be inspected by a code compliance officer. Additionally, the repaired gas line would have to pass a pressure test witnessed by City Gas Service before the valve would be turned back on. Shortly after, the fire department showed up with 3 pumper trucks. The Fire Captain climbed down off of the first pumper and surveyed the situation. The Backhoe blade still rested on the broken gas line. Evidentially, Bert's last motion was to reach behind him and shut off the John Deere's engine. With his hands behind his head, he was pushed back in his seat and was studying the wire screen covering the top of the roll cage directly above him. The unlit cigar rolled from one side of Bert's mouth to the other. The Fire Captain demanded, "Who's in charge here?" John took a step forward. "That would be me, I'm John." "Did you have the utilities located?" "Shoot, yes! Look at all the paint on the lawn!" "Pretty tight spot top be using a Backhoe, isn't it?" Yes, I thought so.....but the Backhoe guy said he could do it." The Fire Captain walked to the trench and looked in. "Is all that stuff live down there?' John nodded, "Yes" The Fire Captain shook his head, "Don't you think it would have been smarter to shut everything off before you dug it up?" John winced at the sarcasm, "I'm trying to run a hotel here. I can't just turn things off. The Backhoe guy said it would be no problem." "And you listened to him?" John didn't reply. The Fire Captain pushed his finger into John's chest. "You said you were in charge here. If you couldn't turn this stuff off - all of it - you should have dug this trench by hand or waited until such time as you could have turned off everything! A Backhoe has no business here at all. You put the lives of hundreds of people in jeopardy based on the opinion of a Backhoe operator." John didn't look up. He muttered, "It's a long story..". The Fire Captain started to walk back to the pumper, "I'll bet....Well, the important thing is no one got hurt. We'll monitor the situation for a little longer but it looks like the danger has passed." "OK..." The Fire Captain stopped and turned for a moment, "John", he said, " Don't pull a boneheaded stunt like this again, OK?. Not in my city, anyway." Then he continued back to the pumper. Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next |
