If you have never been face-to-face with a run away boiler, I can assure you it makes your sphincter pucker! My first one was during my first year as an apprentice. It was a steam boiler in a doctor’s office, and we could hear the roar of steam before we arrived! Steam had broken out a glass pane in a 1-foot by 2-foot basement window in the boiler room. The doctor, nurse, receptionist and all patients were standing outside in the cold. The fire department was on the way.
Paul Strayer (the journeyman I was with) and I entered the building and opened the door to the basement. A cloud of steam vapor met us, and we had to back up a bit until that settled down. We could see a layer of clear air about a foot deep at the concrete basement floor. As per my training, I always had a set of screwdrivers, flashlight and water-pump plyers in my back pocket. Being younger and more agile, I volunteered to head into Dante’s Inferno.