3 ms·

Turn off your natural gas line at the meter.

Kadin 9y ago
I would turn off the water lines as well. On the chance the house doesn't burn but is damaged, preventing water damage and flooding may make some property significantly more salvageable. (Unless the house has sprinklers, of course, or other fire suppression, obviously.)
- KGIII 9y ago
  Fire suppression systems that I'm familiar with, which is absolutely not all, don't rely on an external water supply. They use stored water, often mixed with some oily substance that prevents corrosion, and are gravity or bladder fed. Not that this helps, I just figure it is interesting and one less thing to worry about at a stressful time. They usually don't require power or external water because those can be disrupted. I only know this because I've been involved in having a few systems installed and am not an expert.
  - kbenson 9y ago
    The house is only a few years old, so has the state mandated sprinkler system. Interestingly, it does get fed off the water main, which I know because it prevented me from getting a house wide water softening system. It's a 2" main because it needs to feed all the sprinklers, and it has a notice posted that it's illegal to impede the flow because of that (and a softening system that could handle that is much more expensive).
    - KGIII 9y ago
      I'm sure they have a reason for it. There's no storage tank to supply it? The systems I'm familiar with were all commercial, so that may be why I'm unfamiliar with them being fed from the main. I had to deal with getting a couple of commercial buildings done. I am not completely certain, but I think both of those systems were completely independent of the municipal water supply. I'm 99% certain, at least.
      - kbenson 9y ago
        > There's no storage tank to supply it? Not that I'm aware of, which means I'm pretty sure not. It might be that at the house level, a single house isn't expected to draw so much water, while in a larger structure it's probably possible to overwhelm any feasible main that could be expected if a bunch of sprinklers go off. Even if the main can handle it, maybe there isn't a large enough connections to specific portions of the building from the main which causes water starvation. I imagine there's lots of insidious details when scaling to a large building which aren't immediately obvious.
        KGIII 9y ago
        In both cases I experienced, it was a big giant tank up on the roof of the building. It was separate from the fire suppression system in the server room. I can see why there would be different systems and code requirements for residential construction. Come to think of it, whilst you could put the tank in an attic space - or use a bladder system, it would occupy a lot of space and I'm not sure residential construction would support the weight of the system.

I would turn off the water lines as well. On the chance the house doesn't burn but is damaged, preventing water damage and flooding may make some property significantly more salvageable. (Unless the house has sprinklers, of course, or other fire suppression, obviously.)

KGIII 9y ago
Fire suppression systems that I'm familiar with, which is absolutely not all, don't rely on an external water supply. They use stored water, often mixed with some oily substance that prevents corrosion, and are gravity or bladder fed. Not that this helps, I just figure it is interesting and one less thing to worry about at a stressful time. They usually don't require power or external water because those can be disrupted. I only know this because I've been involved in having a few systems installed and am not an expert.
- kbenson 9y ago
  The house is only a few years old, so has the state mandated sprinkler system. Interestingly, it does get fed off the water main, which I know because it prevented me from getting a house wide water softening system. It's a 2" main because it needs to feed all the sprinklers, and it has a notice posted that it's illegal to impede the flow because of that (and a softening system that could handle that is much more expensive).
  - KGIII 9y ago
    I'm sure they have a reason for it. There's no storage tank to supply it? The systems I'm familiar with were all commercial, so that may be why I'm unfamiliar with them being fed from the main. I had to deal with getting a couple of commercial buildings done. I am not completely certain, but I think both of those systems were completely independent of the municipal water supply. I'm 99% certain, at least.
    - kbenson 9y ago
      > There's no storage tank to supply it? Not that I'm aware of, which means I'm pretty sure not. It might be that at the house level, a single house isn't expected to draw so much water, while in a larger structure it's probably possible to overwhelm any feasible main that could be expected if a bunch of sprinklers go off. Even if the main can handle it, maybe there isn't a large enough connections to specific portions of the building from the main which causes water starvation. I imagine there's lots of insidious details when scaling to a large building which aren't immediately obvious.
      - KGIII 9y ago
        In both cases I experienced, it was a big giant tank up on the roof of the building. It was separate from the fire suppression system in the server room. I can see why there would be different systems and code requirements for residential construction. Come to think of it, whilst you could put the tank in an attic space - or use a bladder system, it would occupy a lot of space and I'm not sure residential construction would support the weight of the system.