An uncomfortable plumbing moment with a happy ending.

deanne — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 01:19:03 +0000

We got an emergency callout for a plumber and electrician at an inner city hotel the other night, after receiving a call from hotel staff saying water was coming through light fittings and onto the bed of an occupied room.
On arrival found this to be the case.
The room was absolutely flooded and pouring through light fittings like a hose.
Checking of upstairs room found the same scenario.
Checking of the room above it found it occupied, but with no answer after continued pounding on the door.
One could hear the shower running.
On opening the door with the master key and wading into the flooded room and bathroom found to my worst nightmare a naked lady laying lifeless on the floor of the shower, blocking the plug hole and causing the flood.
Myself the electrician and the staffer went into a mad panic not knowing what to do, let alone checking for a pulse on the poor lady.
We thought the worst and were drawing straws to see who would at least go in and turn off the water.
I was just on the phone to 000 when we heard “DO YOU MIND…” and then “A BIT OF PRIVACY PLEASE!”
We scurried out of the room, recomposed ourselves and then sheepishly knocked on the door again to try and explain ourselves.
We explained that we thought she was dead and that her sleeping on the plug hole had caused thousands of dollars damage to floors below.
She was completely oblivious to that fact and only offered that she was ok now as an explanation.
The funny thing was two months earlier we had had a nurse come to the office and teach us first aid and CPR etc.
None of that training came into my brain at that moment.
In hindsight, it was probably a good thing that none of that came to my mind, otherwise I might have been nursing a black eye!
I must say it was a one of the strangest, most uncomfortable moments of my working life, but thankfully it had a happy ending.

Ab Prop

An uncomfortable plumbing moment with a happy ending.