I keep telling people, having worked in restaurants for nearly forty years I've seen it all! We had a little accident in the restaurant yesterday. The hose came off the coffee machine, and was spraying water everywhere! Everybody was trying to control it until I could get out there, reach behind the coffee machine, and turn the water off. It wasn't too serious but it brought back memories of other restaurants I've been in. One place I worked hard in the diningroom, had once been a part of the kitchen. Right in the middle of the floor under the carpet was an old drain.
I was working along one afternoon when I heard startled cries and screaming! Running out into the diningroom I found a funnel of water shooting up through the carpet about four feet high! We quickly evacuated everybody, blocked off the doorway with the with brooms and towels, and directed the water out the front door.
We used a smaller back diningroom that afternoon, until the flood subsided. The plumber came down, checked all the lines, examined the drain, and for the life of him, couldn't figure out where the water had come from! It wasn't sewer water, it was clean!
Well, anyway, they put a plug down in that old drain, and filled it with concrete. We never flooded again while I was there but that was a strange occurance!
Another place I worked they put an addition on the bar. We had about three days of heavy rain and began to get dripping in several places, and began to hear like a moaning sound. I asked the boss a couple of times if I should go up and check between the ceiling and the roof. He said "No, when it stops raining we'll check it out, find the leak and seal it."
I was in the diningroom when suddenly we heard the moaning and it was louder than it had ever been. Suddenly two panels in the ceiling simply separated, and a torrent of water came pouring down. Everyone in the bar quickly evacuated! When they had put in the ceiling they had laid a sheet of plastic over the insulation and tacked it down, tacked the excess up on the walls thinking it would keep the moisture out. Then the severe leak opened up, hundreds of gallons of water collected in the space above the plastic, until the plastic finally gave way and the water blasted through the ceiling.
Yep! Working in restaurants I've seen it all, sometimes more than once! So much has happened over the years it's hard to remember any more what happened where. There's just been so much of it! Sometimes an incident will stir a memory that I haven't thought about for years and years, and then it could be forgotten again, replaced by another that pops up. At least places I've worked have never been boring! Something always manages to happen!