"T" wrote
By 1982 I believe the #5 ESS was available. I'd imagine much of the gear
> in that office at the time of the fire was probably #1A ESS and #4 ESS
> for toll switching. A #5 ESS can handle both functions.
Indeed it was and indeed it did !
I don't remember much of the details of the fire since I was downstate but I do remember two things:
The female Translations Engineer (and a few of her peers) who converted the rating, routing and trunking translations from the old 1A to the new #5E in about 48 hours ... a task that normally would have taken about 4-6 weeks. A cute little thing she was! ;-)
I also remember all of the new and revised fire regulations that were implemented a few weeks after.
The switch replacement was made somewhat easier by the fact that the #5E labs and the factory both were just "right down the road" a bit.
Oh, and I also remember feeling relieved that it wasn't ME working (in the remote alarm and surveillance center) that night !!!