Breakfast Nightmare
“I managed a breakfast joint for a while, beginning a few months after it originally opened.
We have a very large oven where we bake our bagels, and one day, after the bagels had been baked for the day, the baker left the door open to cool.
While I was up front, the restaurant and I could hear a deafening, ‘HOLY CRAP’ from the back where the oven was. I walk back laughing, expecting to see a proofing rack knocked over or some other stupid mistake.
Instead, I’m hit with a geyser of jet black water from the sprinkler system above the oven.
Well, shouting resumed as we tried to cover what we could while waiting for the fire department to arrive. They finally arrived and spent the next 2.5 hours looking for the shut off switch for our sprinkler.
Turns out the switch had been inadvertently covered/obstructed during our store’s construction.
I got to stay late that day and help clean every ounce of black, smelly water from our appliances and slicers.
There was about three hours worth of pressurized water in the kitchen.”