Spangdahlem TLF – Why You May Need Rain Boots!

Staying in Military TLF is always an interesting experience.  You know what they say ‘When it rains, it pours’ and that always seems to be the case for us, especially during a PCS! This time it literally poured down on us! Our adventure in Spandahlem TLF – Why You May Need Rain Boots!

While staying in TLF on Spangdahlem the heater in the living room wasn’t working correctly, it was super HOT and we could not turn it down. We were having to keep the window open to try to help with the heat it was putting out. I did what your supposed to do, I called it in to be fixed.

The TLF maintenance guy came out that day and determined that it wasn’t something that he could fix, it needed to be done by the base CE. He said that he thought the valve was on backwards and that there was so much pressure behind it that he didn’t want to cause a mess. We knew it would be a few days before CE could come out with the Thanksgiving holiday so we just kept the window open to help with the crazy heat it was putting out.

Fast forward to the next week when CE is able to make it out. Two young Airmen roll up and explain that they are there to fix the heater. I said ‘great!’ and then told them what the maintenance guy said about the pressure in the heater. They get to work.

Bubby was sleeping on the couch and I woke him up and made him move to my bedroom. He left his laptop on the coffee table as well as his phone/charger, etc. Literally about 2 minutes after I get him moved, I’m on the phone with Mr. B and the heater EXPLODES! I kid you not! Blazing hot water starts shooting out all over the living room! I yelled ‘Bub’s Computer!’ and drop the phone and ran over to grab the laptop. It had been sprayed but I snatched it up and ran it to the bedroom for Bub to wipe off. I immediately ran back to the living room where the steam is fogging up the windows and the Air men are running around trying to get the water shut off. I start grabbing all the electronics, the xbox, converters, fans, ect and getting them off the floor! Bea heard my yelling and woke up and came out to help.

We started grabbing all the towels we could find, which is not many in TLF, and throwing them on the floor to soak up the inches of water! Bea was running to the bathroom where she slipped & fell and hit her knee. Poor girl I told her she didn’t have time to be hurt, she had to get up and help or go rest on her bed because I couldn’t stop in the middle of they chaos. She got up, dried her tears, and got back to work! She’s a tough one!

There is some blur to the pics, as you can image I was in a bit of a hurry as I tried to quickly snap a few pics. Hard to see but there are literally INCHES of water on the floor and the whole living room was covered and only prevented from the hall & dining room thanks to the towels and blankets we used!

I run to call the front desk, which is really in another building, and tell them that the apartment is flooding and we need help ASAP! Thankfully within minutes the TLF maintenance guys showed up, as well as housekeeping. Housekeeping told me that the water was leaking through the floor and through the celling downstairs! The CE guys finally get the water off and the heater drained and it’s time to clean up the swamp that used to be the living room!

They brought in a wet vac, a carpet cleaner, and a mop & bucket so start sopping up all the water. Turns out the safety pin on the valve was broken! Nothing like a little hands on training, LOL! Thankfully the maintenance busy were great about it getting it all cleared up quickly, and our floor got an unexpected hot water mopping!

I grabbed the small camera and started taking pics, I told the guys that people wouldn’t believe me if I didn’t capture it and blog about it, LOL! They thought it was pretty funny that I was going to blog about it.

Of course Mr. B was gone at the time so that left me having to get all these heavy boxes off the floor ASAP so the stuff inside didn’t get ruined! Luckily with my cat like reflexes I was able to successfully save everything as well as get my first official workout since arriving to Spang, LOL!

So as you can see we’ve had quite a few ‘fun experiences’ since we arrived in Germany, this happened just a week into our adventure here. I’m so glad I was home at the time otherwise this story would be…well I don’t even want to think about that! Needless to say I greatly missed my rain boots during this adventure, I was in socks and jumped into Mr. B’s slides what were by the door, which helped but I still ended up with soaked socks! Next time I think I’ll pack rainboots, just in case!