Safe today-- Alive tomorrow.
A corroded cliche but still good words to live by.
| UNDERCITY.ORG |
A guerrilla
historian in Gotham
|
Safe today-- Alive tomorrow.
A corroded cliche but still good words to live by.
CHEMICALS
| Exploration, or spelunking, or infiltration, or vadding, or whatever you want to call it, often takes place in working institutions or buildings, right? And what the explorer is interested in is "negative spaces," the architectural interstices beyond normative quotidien expereince. Generally, these are the domain of the physical plant workers of the building or institution. And so all the normal dangers that physical plant workers face are going to come up. But the thing is, the physical plant workers have experience, good lighting, and an easy conscience. The explorer sometimes is inexpereinced; has only a little light and less knowledge of the area; and jumps and runs blindly when he hears even the smallest sound behind him. This of course is what makes it all exciting. But it also can make for a dangerous situation.... |
| If the explorer is going to move in operational
spaces, he or she should act with just as much care and thoought as the workers
would.
Now, I don't mean that if you sneak into a construction site you have to wear a helmet. I just mean that if you are moving around vapours in enclosed spaces, you should pay attention to the atmosphere quality and oxygen content; if you are around chemicals and hot pipes, you should know it and pay attention so you don't get any chemical burns or thermal burns; and you should have some idea of what to do in various kinds of emergencies. Physical plant workers are usually well-prepared for the sorts of emergencies that might come up, and have the necessary equipment near at hand. |
An emergency shower to wash off
nasty chemicals
STEAM PIPES:
| Steam pipes carry superheated steam from the
main furnace at an institution to nearby buildings. It's much cheaper to
do all the heating one place than it is to have seperate furnaces in seperate
buildings. And because the insulation and connections on the steam pipes
need maintenance access, the pipes are often built into tunnels that a person
can fit into.
Most institutional steam-pipe tunnels actually carry a variaty of utilities- electric, ethernet, cold water, hot water, whatever. But the steam pipes are still the central component. They are very hot, even through a thick layer of insulation. (Usually fiberglass, now, instead of asbestos. But in older buildings you can find asbestos.) Sharing a tight tunnel with superheated steam can be a little nerve-wracking. The stuff is very hot, and so the tunnels are very hot. Exposed metal at steam-pipe joints can be searing. Leaks are rare but nasty. The steam sprays into the air and condenses, so it's pretty obvious, but it can be troublesome getting by a point in the tunnel where a leak is filling the air with fetid, heated, moist vapours. But despite the discomfort, steam pipe tunnels
are usually pretty safe, except that it's easy to bump your head in the
lower ones. |
Below: A brick tunnel with steam pipes
(in white fiberglass insulation), a
cold-water pipe (upper left), and
ethernet cables (the beige pipe on the left).
ASBESTOS:
| Asbestos is bad stuff, causes cancer and all
that. It's white and chalky. I haven't seen much of it, actually, in my travels,
but if you go through old abandoned buildings you WILL come into contact
with it. And if you do enough exploring, you'll come into very close contact
with it: the flaking, powdery stuff will be smeared all over your hands and
pants from where you squeezed past the goddam steam pipes with your pack
just barely fitting through.
Asbestos itself does not seem to be as itchy and irritating to the skin as fiberglass. But even if you don't feel it, it can be doing terrible things to your respiratory system. To be honest, I've never worried too much about it. I figure smoking cigarettes will give me cancer sooner. Also, not all asbestos is equally bad.. Asbestos actually refers only to long mineral fibers, and there are several different minerals that occur in the right sort of fibers to make insulation. As I understand it, only some of the several types of mineral fibers that were used has been proven to be intensely carcinogenic. Fortunately, much old asbestos has been removed.
In still-operational institutions and buildings, you'll sometimes see stickers
saying "asbestos-free insulation." |
"Asbestos Free Insulation" stickers on steam-pipes.
| For more information, and to determine what kind
of breath filters would help, do a web search or check the following sites
from the Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/region4/topics/air/asbestos.html http://www.epa.gov/ebtpages/airairpoasbestos.html http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/asbestos/ For some information on air filters and such,
check:
|
LOW OXYGEN OR FLAMMABLE GASES:
| I really worry about gases in small pipes. Some flammable
gases are heavier than air. This is one of many reasons not to explore alone--
it'd be a shame to pass out from breathing shitty gases and drown in a couple
inches of water. With some one else along, maybe one of you can get to some
fresh air.
Flammability is also a problem, although frankly the idea of seeing a manhole erupt into flame around me as I lit a cigarette would be so cool that it would be worth the singed eyebrows. In NYC, the telephone company people use "Explosimeters."
These are somewhat bulky and run off of a bunch of D-cell batteries. They
measure explosive gases and have a little guage that tells you how FLAMMABLE
the atmosphere is. If it's in the red, don't breath it, and don't light a
match anywhere nearby. But because it doesn't measure oxygen specifically,
I think it would be possible for an atmosphere to show green on the explosimeter
and still be unsafe to breathe. Below are some pictures of an older explosimeter. I find it much too big and bulky to carry around easily, and so I never have it with me when I need it. Con Edison has a much nicer, slicker, smaller
machine that fits at your belt. It's digital and sleeker, but more important
it gives the oxygen content of the air as well as the flammability. But it's
expensive as hell, like more than $500. I can't remember the name of the
company that makes them, it's called Industrial Instruments or something obvious
like that. |
An explosimeter. I just love to say that name. Ex-PLO-si-meter.
The tube coming out of the left side is the sampling
tube.
It's made long so that it can be dropped down a manhole
and the air can be tested before a person goes down after
it.
OTHER SORTS OF DANGERS:
RAZORWIRE: cuts like a motherfucker. In areas where
homeless people have preceded you, you'll sometimes find an old sleeping bag
or section of carpet draped over the stuff to make it easier to get over
the fence. GLOVES ARE NOT ENOUGH TO PROTECT YOUR HANDS. I have
a scar on my hand to prove it. (Actually, they do make kevlar gloves. But
they're expensive.)
LOW CEILINGS: Man, I keep on not wearing a helmet and slamming my head time after time against low crossbeams and pipes. It HURTS. Either wear a helmet or bring ibuprofen, or both. If you don't, well, then, I told you so.
CLIMBING AROUND: The thing of it is, if you can climb rock, than climbing buildings and abandoned structures is easy. If it's doable, then it's like 5.8 moves at the hardest. (Of course, it might be like climbing a latter till you get halfway up the bridge, and then you realize that there's no way in hell to make the next move.) But this is deceptive, because you're climbing old, deteriorated, crumbling, rusty, weak, poorly-built structures. NEVER TRUST AN OLD BUILDING. I was walking underneath a huge, rusty cast-iron pipe one time. My friend was one level up, beside the pipe. He put his hand against it to steady himself, and in so doing dislodged a huge chunk of rusted iron. The water had seeped in between two layers of iron, and so now this giant flake was just barely resting on the old pipe, altough it had looked like one giant mass of rust contigious with the pipe. But the light pressure of my friend's hand had dislodged it, and the fifty-pound chunk crashed down not three feet from me.... Anyway, my point is that you should be careful. If you're climbing, then never trust yourself to a hold until you are sure of it. Even stairs in old buildings are untrustworthy.
THIRD RAILS: If you touch the third rail in a subway tunnel, you're dead. Period. People can and do die from this, although the only cases I've heard of have been already-homeless people who were wandering around drunk or something. Track workers wear boots with special leather coverings over the laces for an extra layer of insulation. Presumably even regular boots would be somewhat insulating. But I don't think you can count on this being enough to protect you. Most systems have some sort of covering over the third rail, so it's hard to step down directly onto it. In the NYC subway, this covering is just a wooden board bolted a few inches above the live third rail. When I was young and brash and overconfident, I would often just step directly onto this board with one foot as I walked over the third rail.... ....until one night when the board I'd just stepped on cracked and broke underneath my foot. I yanked my foot off as I heard the wood splinter, and obviously I am still alive to tell the story. But it made me realize that the wood is often old and weak, and that you should never be unthinking or overconfident around 750 volts. The times when you have to be most careful are when you're least likely to be paying attention. Near stations, the third rail often switches from one side of the track to another. Near stations is also when you're most likely to be spotted, so you will most likely be looking up for security and observers instead of watching your feet, so it can be very risky. If you're afraid that someone has already spotted you, or if you think there's security behind you in the tunnel, you might be running along the tracks with your flashlight off or muffled. Without light and in a rush, you'll be less likely to pay attention to what's at your feet. But you must still be careful of the third rail-- you're at extremely high risk right then. Better to be caught than dead. Much the same thing happens when you're trying to avoid a train. If a subway is coming and you're still on the tracks, you're likely to flee to one side or the other, and you're likely to turn off your flashlight to be less conspicious. As the third rails are at the sides, this is one of the most dangerous situations. Make sure you don't let yourself do anything stupid out of fright or excitement. Basically, BE CAREFUL OF THE THIRD RAIL
SUBWAY TRAINS: Trains themselves are not as much of a danger as they originally seem. Generally you can avoid being caught in the tunnel: if you know when your subway system has its slow times-- like midnight to 4am in the NYC system-- then you can wait for a train to go by and then you know that you have twenty minutes or whatever before the next one, unless something unusual happens. If you do get caught in the tunnel of the NYC system with a train, it's still usually not so bad. As you walk, you should keep an eye out for alcoved or side-passageways, and if you hear a train coming you can run for the nearest place like that. This is both for safety and for the sake of not being seen. In the worst-case scenario, when there's no hiding place in sight, it's still not so bad as long as you don't do anything stupid. Even if trains are coming in both direction, or if an express and local are both coming, there's still the space between the two tracks. This space is where the rows of I-beam tunnel supports are, and if you stand between I-beams, there's enough clearance for both the trains to pass on either side, unless you're really fat. Don't stand agains the outer walls, even though it looks like the indentations in the outer walls would give you more room. Sometimes, expecially on turns, the train cars rock out toward these outer walls and reduce the clearance there. But there's almost always enough room between the I-beams.
(OTHER) CRIMINALS or CRAZIES: Just remind yourself that you are, in fact, the criminal here. Other criminals should, by extension, be your friends and allies. Sometimes very nice, inoffensive people without other homes squat or make semi-permanent residence in otherwise abandoned structures. It is, in my opinion, shockingly bad manners to disturb these people at their homes, unless you are invited. Definitely it would be rude to be overly voyeristic, although voyerism on poverty does make for some damn good pictures. I have had good experiences with graffiti artists, homeless denizens of the underworld, other random urban spelunkers, drug addicts, and squatters. On the other hand, if something bad or threatening WERE to happen underground, there would be no place to run, and no one to hear me yelling. That worries me. ; But think very carefully before you arm yourself. Is it more likely that you'll get arrested, or that you'll get attacked? If you get attacked, a weapon most likely won't be very useful. (The one time I've been beaten up, I had Mace in one pocket and a knife in the other-- but I couldn't use them because there were three against me and one of them had jumped on my back and pinned my arms at the very beginning, before I even knew I was being attacked.) But if you do get arrested, having a weapon can make things VERY difficult-- it can go from simple trespassing to criminal trespassing, and the police will likely be much less lenient with you. Also,
most people are nice. So be nice in return, and there won't be any problems.
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