June 17 – “silver spewer spigots”

We moved on to the next big inspection at church.  This time it was the fire suppression system in the retreat center.  Hefty-duty name for the sprinkler system that kicks in when there is a fire.  He checked out all the little silver spewer spigots in the ceiling (Hey, I have no idea what they are supposed to be called), and they passed with flying colors.  He turned on the test flow switch, and that was the most exciting part of the whole thing.  You could hear the water flowing into the pipes above our heads until they reached wherever it was they were supposed to reach.  And suddenly the fire alarm blared to life.  Fortunately he had already called the fire alarm monitoring company to put them on alert so the fire department wouldn’t roll out the trucks.  I assured him that wouldn’t be so bad.  We have some great guys and gals in the Jamaica Beach Volunteer Fire Department as well as the regulars at the Galveston stations.  But on the other hand it would take them out of service for other important calls, so I was glad he canceled the service.  The upstairs part of the system passed everything with flying colors.  He even gave me a key so we could shut off the pull alarm if anyone ever pulled it as a prank. 

Now the downstairs part of the inspection was a lot different.  He did his best to tell me all about it, but more than once he was met with my totally informed response: “I have no idea what that is.”  And even a few like this: “I have no idea where that is.”  The bottom line was that apparently when the pipe was installed, there must have been different code requirements, because there were supposed to be four check switches for inspections, and ours only had one.  Everything was working fine, but he was unable to check things like pressure and backflow without those switches.  Oh, and we couldn’t find where that particular water tie-in connected to the water system so it could be turned off at the street.  He didn’t need it turned off for his inspection, but he will when they do the installation of the other inspection switches.  I sent a text or two asking some of our guys if anybody knew where it was, but so far no luck.  The guy told me not to worry about it.  He will call the Jamaica Beach water department and have them come out and turn it off when the time comes.  I’m curious now, though.  I think I will keep asking around.

He assured me that the system was working properly as far as he could tell, and all was safe for the time being.  He will email me with the bid to do the upgrades we need, and we can set up an installation time later in the summer.  So I can’t really check that one off the list quite yet.  But we are well on our way …

Romans 10:17 says, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

Father, thank you for spewer spigots and fire suppression systems and especially for guys who understand all that stuff.  I appreciate the sense of safety they bring.  Not as comprehensive as your plan of safety, of course.  Amen.