Don't Pull

On today’s “As the Mug Turns”, why I should NOT have pulled the thing that said pull. Let us go back in time to early September 1993. I had just graduated in May and was home working full time. Back then full time for me was 7 days a wee...k and 13 hours a day. It was a night shift probably around 5:30pm. There is a big thunderstorm happening. Huge lightning and thunder and then we start to smell smoke in the kitchen. 23 year old Terry panics. We all seem to think there is a fire above us in the hood system. I am running around like a chicken with its head cut off. One cook is actually yelling what is the number for 911. (911 was new in LaPlace at that time) I announce to the dining room everyone out. A kid that worked the front is saying I paid for 2 burgers tonight but only ate one don’t forget. (SO not at the top of my worries at that moment) Then I do the thing that I will never do again. I pulled the pull switch for the fire suppression system. I do not think I had any idea what would happen next. The system shoots foam everywhere – both fryers and the grill. The entire kitchen is covered and some of the front. The fire department, the police, EMT’s, and my Dad get here. Guess what we can still smell smoke. Crap. The lightening had gotten the dishwasher. We were shut down for the night and the cleanup that will take hours begins. One cook goes to empty the fryers – she decides to empty the 350 degree grease in to a plastic pickle bucket. The grease melts the bucket and now the kitchen is covered in foam and grease. Sigh. Finally about 4 hours later and everything is cleaned my Dad says to the crew what have you all learned. Terry – don’t pull the pull thing. (In case there really is a fire in the hood, fryers, or grill the system has sensors and will go off on its own), others lessons were the number for 911 is 911, don’t put hot grease in a plastic buckets, and yes we know you only ate one burger but paid for two.
The next day the fire suppression company came out to recharge the system and said they had never actually known of someone to pull that thing before me.
I have had many a stupid moment in the last 20+ years but this was the crowning jewel of my stupidity. There may still be a VHS tape of this event but I do NOT ever need to see that again.
Tune in tomorrow for more "As the Mug Turns"!