[BC] Beautiful Transmitters destroyed by Fire or Flood and Other Woes

[David Arendt]

On 2/21/06, Bob Barnswatts <amfan at collins21e.com> wrote:
> Over the years once in awhile a person reads of a radio station transmitter building that catches fire and burns down.
>
> Has anyone ever  seen such a mess? --

Unfortunately I have.  A couple of years ago our transmitter site
caught fire. Calling my supervisor to tell him that the building was
burning is one call that I hope to never have to make again.  The
other un-fun thing is waiting for the fire investigation to determine
the cause of the fire, all the while hoping you did not do something
stupid like leaving a soldering iron on.  Turns out it was a computer
monitor.  The fire was not real bad, but the soot and smoke was in and
on everything.  We had a 10 KW FM transmitter, 60KW analog TV
transmitter, and a 2.5KW DTV transmitter, plus all of the microwave
gear for the TSL's and STL's.  I did not think the clean up would ever
get finished.  Luckily the tubes for the TV transmitter got their air
from outside(30KW air cooled IOT's), but every thing else took in air
from the room.  The fire occurred around lunch time, and we were back
up with everything but DTV by late evening with the help of the other
stations in the another part of the building(lucky for them they were
positively pressurized compared to us).

Anyway if anyone wants to the details of the story I can provide them,
but for now I am going to hit the hay and catch a few z's before I go
into the station
.
David Arendt (KA3VEI)