Opening the Windows, In Space

I recently envisioned a fight scene in which the three main characters are in a bar on a spaceship when about a dozen space marines ambush them. They take cover behind the bar, but without weapons or a back door their situation looks pretty grim. That is, until they find the fire alarm. It just so happens that the most drastic fire-extinguishing procedure for the bar is to open the windows (into the vacuum of space), essentially removing all oxygen from the room and thus suffocating the flame. In my fight scene, the decompression from this process is enough to stagger all of the space marines, (maybe) suck some of them out into space, and (definitely) suck out all of their weapons (let's assume they were dropped at the start, and thus were in the air when the windows opened). This gives the main characters a chance to jump out from behind the bar and use bottles and their fists to dispatch the remaining marines as the windows close again.

The part about this scenario I'm most worried about is that, since the main characters are the main characters, cliche dictates that they can't be wearing helmets. So, I want to know if I can get reasonably powerful decompression without knocking out the good guys. Headaches are fine, and are the bends so long as it's not immediately debilitating. If it is possible, some numbers would be appreciated for how fast the windows would open, and for how long decompression would actually be felt before all the air was evacuated (and how long until exposure to the ensuing vacuum would cause major problems).

Let's assume the room is about 100 feet square and 20 feet high. There are three windows about 3x15 feet, that open by sliding the pane up.

EDIT: As to the people who have a lot of confidence in these space marines, perhaps I should have specified: they are rookies, with little training, and zero training on space missions. As to why their guns are not attached with straps, I am handwaving that for now.

As to the danger of this firefighting system, the alarm is behind the bar, effectively inaccessible to anyone but the bartender. Plus, feel free to add any safety features you want, such as gas masks, nets over the window openings, etc.

posted over 9 years ago

DaaaahWhoosh‭

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