Yucky flood in Telstra Building, Pirie St

[bajdas]

08:39:04 05-06-08 MFS: *CFSRES INC015 05/06/08 08:36,RESPOND Flooding/Salvage,30 PIRIE ST,ADELAIDE MAP B K 11 TG182,LEVELS 10 AND 11,TELSTRA HOUSE,EAS020 ADL201

Several (I think 5) SES Units reponded. Interesting task until I read...

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23813928-2682,00.html

Telstra House in Adelaide flooded with sewage

STAY out of the "rain" on Pirie St - a building is being evacuated because of flooding caused by a blocked toilet and the mess is pouring down on to the footpath.

Staff on the tenth and eleventh floors of Telstra House were moved out just after 9am and the rest of the building has now been cleared. About 1600 people have filed out..

MFS crews and SES volunteers are attempting to stop the block and clean the floors.

[bajdas]

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23813928-5006301,00.html

Telstra House in Adelaide flooded with sewage

OVERFLOWING sewage has caused the evacuation of 1200 staff from a major city building as five floors were soaked in a putrid mess.

Staff on the tenth and eleventh floors of Telstra House on Pirie St, were moved out of the building just after 9am after reports of a sewage block.

MFS crews and more than 30 SES volunteers were called to the building to stop the block and were given the unpleasant task of mopping up the mess.

The major sewer pipe problem caused the blockage of other drains in kitchens and throughout the building and the entire building was closed just after 10am.

Police were called to manage traffic as Telstra's 1200 staff from all 23 floors, including a number of mobility-impaired staff, were evacuated.

SES central regional commander Derren Halleday said five floors had been soaked in effluent several centimetres deep.

"There has been a major plumbing failure within the building which caused potentially effluent-laden water to flood across five floors," he said.

"Emergency services, Telstra and Adelaide City Council are working together to mitigate the risk to employees".

Most of the damage was done to the eleventh floor.

"It is a couple of inches across all floors," Mr Halleday said.

All staff assembled at Hindmarsh Square before being sent home for the day.

Daniel Honan, executive director of Telstra said the leak had been contained to several floors.

"But the damage bill is unknown at this stage," he said.

The building houses administration staff and a call centre. Calls were redirected from Adelaide after the evacuation.

"The owners of the building have started a clean-up of the building and it should be business as usual tomorrow morning, that is the advice we are getting from the buildings owners," Mr Honan said.

"All of our staff are safe and sound which is the primary concern as well as the public health with some contamination on the footpath."

Emergency services were expected to remain in the building overnight to decontaminate each floor.

[Robert-Robert34]

Sis rung my mobile this arvo and said that she was being evacuated having worked on one of the floors which was affected

08:39:04 05-06-08 MFS: *CFSRES INC015 05/06/08 08:36,RESPOND Flooding/Salvage,30 PIRIE ST,ADELAIDE MAP B K 11 TG182,LEVELS 10 AND 11,TELSTRA HOUSE,EAS020 ADL201

Now who stuffed the toiles up with loo paper 

[boredmatrix]

finally - I've always knew Telstra was full of **** ....now they've got too much of it and in true to form style they dump it on the general public!

[Katrina]

I caught some of this one the news, it was just flooding out of the walls of the building, I have never seen anything like it before, glad I was no where near there

[SA Firey]

BLACK RAIN

[bajdas]

I caught some of this one the news, it was just flooding out of the walls of the building, I have never seen anything like it before, glad I was no where near there

I was not at the incident...but I can't figure out how the liquid got outside of the building on level 9 or above ?? 

I have assumed the city building is like most multi-story buildings where the windows are sealed & cannot be opened. Maybe it came out through the plant room vents... ??

[Zippy]

Air Fresheners are gonna be sold out at the local woolly's arent they

[Katrina]

it was just pouring out at every level by the looks of the footage that I saw

[CFS_Firey]

Air Fresheners are gonna be sold out at the local woolly's arent they

I think I'd rather the effluent smell...

[SA Firey]

Hey lady you need a Glade

[6739264]

Sounds like a HAZMAT to me!

[RescueHazmat]

S**t yeah!   

[Alan J]

Story via a boyfriend of a colleague's daughter who used to be a plumbing contractor at 30 Pirie...

Restrictors were fitted to drain plugs the airconditioning water reservoirs on the roof to prevent uncontrolled drainage during regular flushing (to prevent legionnaires disease etc.)  That contractor was sacked - too expensive.  New contractor wasn't prepared to wait several hours for several tens of thousands of litres of air-con water to drain, so removed restrictors to drain it faster.

Unrestricted drainage of xxx,000litres of water met partial blockage in sewer around 10th floor partly caused by lack of flow due to waterless urinals. Water backed up & overflowed through toilets, sinks & floor traps on 10th up to 14th floors. At around 0915.  Overflow extended from wet areas at back of building out across the floors & out through the front walls onto the street, & down into lift wells. at approx 1020 water was shut off to building.  In absence of toilets which flush & guaranteed drinking water, building was fully evacuated. Total cost expected to be in the low millions, including carpets, furniture repairs/restoration & wall replastering & personal effects. 



cheers

[gasman]

Hmm sounds like some one is gonna get a big bill.
Who says us plumbers arent worth the money we charge?