Mountain Man
Senior Member
Big condo fire in Prestwick last night, sounds like CFD used more than 3 million liters of water to fight it!
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- Thread starter Mountain Man
- Start date
O-tac
Active Member
This sounds like an issue that has plagued pipes from the 70’s and many American cities have had similar catastrophic failures.
The PCCP repair and reinforcement project caused by mistakes of the 70s
Below specification PCCP installed across the US in the 1970s has left Amercian water companies facing massive repair and reinforcement projectspiperepair.co.uk
Basically they used less steel in the pipe thinking it was stronger, which causes the concrete to fail.
See my earlier post above. Basically cities all over NA that have pipe installed during the 70's face a similar threat of catastrophic failure because the manufacturing from that era had issues with the steel. There have been similar pipe breaks in many American cities all around the 50 year mark.
O-tac
Active Member
The video of the fire was insane. I'm amazed it was limited to the roof. I wonder what caused it? Errant cigarette butt or roof repairs? Though it happened at 3:00 am I think, so it's hard to say.
Mountain Man
Senior Member
It sounds like it started on a 3rd floor balcony, burned up to the roof, then the wind took it into the attic and that was it. News said CFD received a call at 10PM, so I'd guess a cigarette butt in a planter or something.
O-tac
Active Member
I would feel nervous living in any condo like that with balconies. All it takes is one idiot to burn the whole thing down. I live in a townhouse and have had to have conversations with new neighbours that were putting cigarette butts in a grass planter at the back of our units. Thankfully they have stopped. about 10 years ago a duplex caught fire just behind us and burned down both neighbours homes as well. The heat across the alley melted the siding on our row. It was at least a 2 alarm fire, and the Seton fire station was still under construction so they had to come form McKenzie Towne.
Mountain Man
Senior Member
I'm curious how many fires are started by idiots pitching butts. The big fire in Millrise 14 years ago was a guy putting a butt in a planter on a super windy day. Lots of similarities with the Prestwick fire actually. I think a guy in Kelowna was charged with pitching a butt out the window of his car and starting a forest fire! All for what, to slowly kill yourself? I really don't get the point of smoking lol.
The massive fire in Fort Mac was suspected to be started by someone on a quad chucking a butt.
Mountain Man
Senior Member
I knew about the ATV part, thought it was grass caught on the muffler or something. Yikes!
DougB
Active Member
Probably many, but fewer than in the past due to declining smoking rates. Grass fires in Fish Creek and Nosehill parks used to be almost monthly occurrences compared to every few years now. Vehicle exhaust systems burn hotter now due to emissions controls and likely start more fires than in the past. All it takes is parking in tall grass.
Rollerstud98
Active Member
I remember nose hill being blackened basically every year in the 90’s. Now much more rare for sure.
I can't find the news story anymore, but I remember they were out on an ATV trail around the area where the fire had started and identified a cigarette butt as the possible/probable cause. Maybe they've since ruled it out....idk? Apparently a number of fires in that area over the past decade have come from cigarette butts.
ByeByeBaby
Active Member
Listening to the live briefing, sounds like indoor water restrictions are over! Hooray!
CalgaryTiger
Senior Member
Will we have a new water normal. Pretty interesting that even though people threw their hands up that we were pretty successful at reducing water use.
It shows me, even after covid seemingly divided us, we can still come together and do what we have to for one another. It shouldn't take things like this to reassure me that things aren't so bad but it does.
Good job everyone, lets celebrate with a great Stampede.
It shows me, even after covid seemingly divided us, we can still come together and do what we have to for one another. It shouldn't take things like this to reassure me that things aren't so bad but it does.
Good job everyone, lets celebrate with a great Stampede.
CBBarnett
Senior Member
I'd be really curious what happens to the overall water usage over time - sure it will go back up a bit, but there's that whole saying about it takes 3 - 4 weeks to form a habit in general. I wouldn't be surprised if water usage takes a long while to creep back up to "normal" or that the new normal is a bit lower than previous. Anecdotally, I did not find the restrictions overly impactful for my situation - but just made me really think about length of showers, really filling the dishwasher up etc.
Overall, the long-term Calgary's water usage story is quite remarkable, here's two graphs awkwardly shoved together going back to 1972 on daily consumption to give an idea of the trend. Tried to line it up so the line is approximately a consistent scale. We are on a consistent, downward trend in usage per person for decades.
Water usage peaked in the early 1980s at ~800 L / person / day. After a few decades innovation in appliance and fixture design, water meters and better awareness, by in 2023 we are at 351L / person / day. During these recent restrictions we were 20 - 25% even below that (~300 - 325 L / person / day). That's remarkable.
And it's not just us either making huge efficiency improvements. For comparison, here's a similar article from Las Vegas, a notably desert place with big time water issues. Converting the usage from gallons to litres for he graph below, they have trended similarly and are sitting at around 335L / person / day in 2023, very similar to Calgary.
Red Star
New Member
It'd be interesting to see who the big water users are in Calgary. To see a residential vs. Industrial/Commercial split and to see a break down of of water consumption of a high-rise residential unit vs. SFH. In the last 20 years there have been a few golf courses which redeveloped into residential areas which probably helped out with the per capita water consumption. With that said I assume some of the golf courses along the river like Inglewood, McKenzie Meadows and Blue Devil have a water license and just pull it straight from the Bow river.