Retrotechtacular: rebuilding a telephone exchange ravaged by fire

Those WHO do not have experimented THE destruction of A House fire should consider themselves lucky. THE speed with which fire can to erase A lifetime of work — Or A life, For that matter — East stunning. And THE disturbance A fire causes For survivors, WHO often escape THE blaze with only THE clothes on their back, East almost unfathomable. HAS confront THE stain of reconstruction A life with just A little damaged by smoke And tempera possessions while resistant only pajamas And slippers East A devastating proposal.

As bad as A Residential fire can be, However, It is impact East Fortunately limit has THE occupants. Infrastructure fires are another thing entirely; THE disturbance they cause East often felt far beyond THE building Or ease implied. THE movie below documents A Perfect example of This: THE 1975 New York Phone Exchange fire, which swept away through THE the company central desk ease has THE corner of 2nd Street And 13th Street In Manhattan And cut disabled service has 300 blocks of THE East Village And Lower East Side neighborhoods.

THE fire, which begin due has A short circuit In A of THE basement cable coffers during THE graveyard change on FEBRUARY 27 And propagated quickly up through cable lawsuits In THE rest of THE building, Ultimately escalation has five alarms And implied more that 700 FDNY firefighters. He took more that 16 hours has turn off THE blaze, which burped black smoke as kilometers of PVC insulation cable burned has ashes.

Deletion a few of THE kilometers of jump cable destroy by THE fire.

Before THE toxic smoke even erased, New York Phones reconstruction efforts were in progress. Job A was has assess THE Shame, And THE picture was dark: all THE switching equipment on THE second And third floors of THE building was destroy, smoke And water steam damaged equipment all THE path up THE eleven floors building, And most of THE 2,400 pairs jump cables enter THE buildings basement were molten has slag. With on 170,000 clients private of their only means of communication, NYTel engineers And managers had has figure out how has restore service as quickly as possible.

Detection THE historical nature of This disaster — he would be stay THE most destructive And disruptive event In Bell System history until THE 11/09 attacks — AT&T shipped A movie crew has document THE recovery. THE movie can feel A little self-congratulation, but considering THE enormity of THE problems they had has overcome, THE to rent out And applause are well-deserved. Five thousand employees Since all on THE Bell System converged on lower Manhattan has band out THE destroy equipment, to do the housework And repair THE building, And to start reconstruction THE exchange Since scratch. Supplies And gear were diverted Since all on THE country has help THE effort; In A notably lucky to break, A main distribution frame destined For another desk was drawn Since A Western Electric loading Dock, shipped has New York, And installed In only four days, instead of THE six month A job as that would be Normally take.

THANKS has THE massive mobilization, What came has be known as "THE Miracle on 2nd Street" restored service has all clients In A simple 23 days. That success came has A very high price, However; even However No lives were lost In THE fire, on 300 firefighters were hurt during THE answer. But that was only A shadow of things has come — THANKS has THE toxic smoke Since all that burning PVC, on forty case of cancer mowed up In First of all speakers on THE which follows decades. If You Never request Why building codes specify “classified plenum” California...