Mice trouble

I arrived into work the other day and as usual went into the Accountants office to say good morning. I was somewhat surprised to see him stood behind his desk surveying a large pool of water on the floor behind him with a perplexed look on his face.

A plumber was called and half a day later after he’d hammered his way through plasterboard walls and ducting he discovered the problem. A mouse had chewed through the plastic connector joining two overhead pipes and the resultant hole had leaked and flooded the area underneath. Apparently this is not unknown. It turns out that it’s not unknown for their larger cousins the rats to gnaw through copper pipe to get at the water.

Suffice to say we called in pest control and commenced a counter attack against the fiend.

What concerned me were the consequences had this been an electrical cable?

The outcome could have been very different. Any sparks caused by a short in the circuit could possibly cause a fire out of sight without us knowing. The moral of the story is that it is not always the obvious fire risks that can lead to a fire.

When carrying out a fire risk assessment consideration should be given to reducing such risks especially if your business is of a type or in a location that might invite access to such enterprising creatures.

Barrie