INT – DAY
6 AM. Fall morning. A phone rings. Half-awake man stumbles to answer it.
Sam (croaks): hello?
Boss: There’s smoke pouring out of the server room. I need the passwords to shut everything down. We’re going to yank the plugs soon.
Sam: Uh..is the gear hot? What about the UPS’s?
Boss checks.
Boss: All cool to the touch.
Fire chief: If you don’t shut those servers off now, we’re ripping the walls out!
Sam: Wait! If it’s the gear shorting out then why is everything operational? Are the walls hot?
Fire chief: Could be a problem outlet. Why are we listening to you anyway?
A buildings and grounds staffer rushes in.
B&G: A rubber belt in the air handler on the roof snapped. It’s burning. That air handler vents right into the server room. Let me shut off the HVAC system.
In reality this drama took thirty minutes to play out. Five hours later the server room still smells a bit…rubbery.
Well at least the Fire department was ready to do anything nesassary to put the fire out.
They were ready. Almost too ready. God knows that building is one big tinderbox, but the notion of hacking into cold walls shows they pushed off the “we-gotta-save-the-children”, rather than “is-there-fire-with-this-smoke?”
Can’t complain that they were there in under 5 minutes.