[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by iamfishhead

Seems like people should be treating these things more seriously.

On this subject, I always think of this:

4-Alarm Fire in S.F. City Hall Dome / No one hurt, damage confined to dome area
Jaxon Van Derbeken
Feb. 14, 1998
Updated: Feb. 4, 2012 12:23 a.m.

1998-02-14 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco's $293 million renovation of City Hall was dealt a setback yesterday when a fire broke out between layered walls of the famous dome, sending smoke billowing over the Civic Center and bottling up the evening commute.

Construction crews had already ended their workday, when someone saw smoke and reported the fire about 4:10 p.m. The blaze rose to four alarms as 120 firefighters spent three hours dousing the flames -- a task fire officials said was impeded by a malfunctioning water standpipe.

Despite the problem, firefighters kept the blaze from spreading through the rest of the 1915 beaux arts building.

Fire officials said the half-million-square-foot building was unoccupied and no injuries were reported.

Fire Department Lieutenant Edward Campbell said a cause had not been determined and it will take up to a week for structural engineers to determine the extent of the damage.

"It appears there was no structural damage to the dome," said Tony Irons, the Department of Public Works' chief architect on the project. "For the people of San Francisco, that's a good thing."

Irons said the fire started beneath the thin copper facade of the dome, which is 90 feet in diameter. The flames were sandwiched between the copper on the exterior and the wood, tile and steel in the interior of the dome. Most of the damage was to the wood and plaster inside the dome, which Irons said was scheduled to be repainted anyway.

"A fair amount of copper was destroyed," Irons said, adding that ornate plaster moldings were heavily stained by smoke. "But the firefighters did a wonderful job even though they were hampered by lack of water."

One of the two iron pipes which carry water some 300 feet from the ground to the top of the dome was leaking, Irons said, forcing firefighters on scaffolding to drag hoses to the blaze.

"It was a very difficult fire to fight," Campbell said. "Firefighters literally had to carry equipment up narrow spiral staircases in the dome area."

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/...ne-3013270.php

I had a serious lump in my throat watching this drama play out.