Saskatoon, Canada – Two fire patrollers will prowl the halls of Saskatoon’s City Hospital, sniffing for smoke around the clock, until a problem with the hospital’s sprinkler system is resolved.
On Wednesday, staff were dealing with two unrelated problems in the facility — the failure of an electrical component that feeds to the hospital’s fire pump, and a burst hot water pipe connector that cut off the hospital’s hot water supply for much of the day.
“Water was basically shooting out,” said Marcel Nobert, director of facilities management for the Saskatoon Health Region.
Fortunately, the hot water break didn’t flood any patient rooms or clinical areas, Nobert said. It did send water gushing into the basement maintenance shop.
The hospital shut off the hot water from early morning until mid-afternoon to connect a temporary bypass.
Although all surgeries and procedures went ahead as planned, it caused a backlog in sterilizing surgical equipment, Nobert said.
Until the pipe is permanently fixed, City Hospital patients can expect showers to be “warmish,” Nobert added.
The fix could be pricey. The region has had to bring in a scaffolding contractor to build a ladder about 10 metres down so a plumber can access the broken pipe.
Nobert said he hopes the problem will be fixed some time today.
In an unrelated incident, an electrical component at the hospital failed around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, cutting off power to the pump that boosts water pressure in the hospital’s fire sprinkler system.
If there was a fire, some water would still come out of the sprinklers — but perhaps not enough, Nobert said. It could be a drizzle on the hospital’s upper floors.
As a backup plan, the hospital now has a “fire watch” system in place: two security or maintenance workers walk constantly around the facility, smelling and looking for any signs of fire. They know where all fire extinguishers are, and can respond quickly in the event of a blaze, Nobert said.
Electrical crews worked Wednesday evening to see if they could connect a temporary source of power to the pump.
A permanent fix isn’t likely until Friday afternoon, after a specialized replacement part arrives from Eastern Canada, Nobert said.
Patients shouldn’t notice the problem affecting any of their care, he added.
Data released Friday by the provincial government from VFA Canada showed the health region’s backlog of maintenance work more than doubled to $924 million between 2007 and 2013.
President and CEO Maura Davies has said the region needs a big injection of cash and about five times the current yearly maintenance funding from the provincial government to get its buildings into a reasonable state of repair
Story via: www.thestarphoenix.com