Another case of a Non Qualified person calling themselves an Electrician.

 I do Forensic Electrical Inspection for various entity's and was recently called to a home having unbalanced voltage issues.

Prior to my arrival the main breaker panel to the home had been replaced by a supposed electrician.  

One of the problems in Pa we don't have license   for electricians except class A city's  

 

One look at box initially was nicely done . But that's where the real problem comes in.  

Thou everything looks correct its not in fact its a very dangerous situation going on-why?

The individual failed to install a Safety number #6 copper wire ground to water pipe and no ground wire . He also failed to put the green grounding screw which ties  the neutral buss bar to the panel so it is grounded. 

The safety ground missing was part of reason lights would go dim and bright due to the aging old electrical grid in the neighborhood and its also there in case of lightning to draw it away from service. 
 

These people paid for a professional instead they got a hack. its absolutely criminal what this individual did but again he will get away with it, He was called back told to fix and call  a certified 3rd party inspector recognized by Pa. 

When home owner was getting ready to sell he chaged the electrical outlets not knowing the danger he caused. and home inspector should loose his certification and never be allowed to inspect again in Pa.

 I do occasional work where i perform Electrical Forensic Inspection. for various entity's.

I was asked to look over an electrical outlet which caught fire in a bedroom in a house and nothing was plugged into it. 

 

  After examining everything I found out Aluminum  Romex was used in this house and was mixed with copper very bad thing.to do..

To make matters worse before the owner a former home builder moved out he changed all the electrical outlets  which where specifically designed to use copper and aluminum the cheap Chinese ones where copper only they hooked the aluminum romex 

Power being pulled thru the outlet and the dissimilar metals lead to a galvanic action and heat and caused the outlet to start smoking.  

 

To make matters worse they hired a home inspector to go over the home and even thou Aluminum Romex was clearly visible in breaker panel inspector never said a word about  it  and is required by law to do so upon finding it which means he gave this house an easy pass.

I HAVE WRITTEN PREVIOUSLY ABOUT THESE SO CALLED HOME INSPECTORS . THEY ARE WORTHLESS AND SHOULD BE BANNED FROM OFFERING SERVICES PERIOD. THEY SHOULD HAVE TO GO THRU SAME TRAINING A MUNICIPAL BUILDING INSPECTOR GOES THRU.

THIS INSPECTOR  SHOULD BE BROUGHT UP ON CRIMINAL CHARGES FOR RISKING A CATASTROPHE A FELONY CHARGE IN  PA. 

Needless to say most he will face is civil lawsuit and once again a non qualified home inspector gets away with costing a new home owner thousands to correct an issue he should have clearly pointed out . 

Fire Suppression Blankets there all the hype in putting out fires.Just one problem many can be deadly and spread a fire because how they are made

 Did an inspection of a fire scene in a family's home after the Chicken they where frying caught kitchen on fire when grease ignited while making an evening snack.

The home Owner had an older Fire Extinguisher which he tried to use to put it out ,but because it had not been inspected or maintained it lost its pressure to propel the powder 

 

But he had back up he had purchased a fire safety blanket which he put over the stove as he had seen in the instructions but the blanket which he can not remember who made it  caught fire and home was destroyed

                                                         Example not actual blanket

 The problem is many of these blankets are not certified by any 3rd party certification outfit to their worthiness so there is no guarantee they are suitable to be used in a fire .

Plus many blanket manufacturers are very deceptive how they sell these blankets for what they can do.

Yes they use them in industrial settings but those blankets are highly regulated .and personnel trained to use them.

If your going to buy a blanket make sure it has UL or ETL certified seal and learn how to use properly.

But a Fire Extinguisher is always my first go to. 

 

 

 

 

Limited Area Sprinkler Systems in closets and crawl spaces are a good ideal but is anyone testing to make sure they work ?

 Limited area Sprinklers are a great idea I recently came across one in an apartment building  tenant storage room 

Its just 3 sprinkler heads run off the buildings main water line  NFPA 13 limits these systems to 6 heads and they make sense where you don't need a full sprinkler system but want extra protection. Like storage rooms and Trash chutes etc 

 

But the question is who or when are these to be tested if there ever tested ? 

I can find nothing in codes require them to be tested other than NFPA25. to make matters worse   valves serving them are not locked or electrically monitored  like regular sprinklers . Seems to be a AHJ call and the bigger problem is really old limited systems generally have no inspectors test valve or flow switch with bell which limits there inspection. 

So the next question is after they have been installed 20 to 30 years will they even still work? 

I have seen steel pipe sprinklers where rust was so bad heads did not activate  should not happened with a copper or plastic piping but still who is keeping an eye on them? 

Lots of questions no answers . 

 

 

 

Another Honeywell Honey-fail 5495 Silent Knight Horn Booster Failures

 Yes Once again Honeywell has failed when it comes to a quality product and how the hell did these 5495 Horn Boosters ever get on the market .

 

 

It seems every 5495 Horn Booster myself and other fire Alarm techs have installed have failed with in 12-113 years . Worst part no trouble signal from booster its not working .

This bad one was found during bi annual test  .

Well needless to say I will never buy or put in or replace another SK Booster it will be Potter Electric boosters from here out. 

because Honeywell will not address or fix the problem because as usual they just dont give a F#%k if you get hurt  

Verizon FIOS technicians putting public at danger as they upgrade Fiber interfaces for Phone Lines

 It is a case of shear laziness and Verizon not giving a Fu>k about pubic safety .

Technicians are taking the original Fios fiber interface boxes which had a Back up battery and would hold phone lines up and ripping out the original parts and installing a new interface has no battery back up

 You can see in picture above where battery sat.

I recently had a case where a Dollar General  fire Alarm went into trouble and would not communicate every time the store in Ross twp  P on 3 degree road lost power which is frequent and this is the mess I found.

 You now have to request battery back up and they give you this flimsy enclosure  holds 12 D batteries or you can use a UPS

Isn't that nice of Verizon putting peoples lives on the line and this is not the first one I have found. 

 

 

Addressable Fire Alarm systems once seen as great advancment over Convntional Systems . But now proving to be a legacy problem as systems age and parts are no longer available

 Addressable systems are fantastic when it comes to there flexibility especially in large buildings and multiple properties .they let you know exactly know which device is in alarm or trouble. 

Because with old conventional systems in some cases you could have as many as 20 or more devices on a run and trying to find the bad one can be a real pain finding it.

 

But as Analog Addressable systems are now going into their 2nd and 3rd generation of design

The legacy systems in the field  are becoming a Night Mare for Building owners .

Because of mergers and changes in protocols how panels communicate  in the industry many parts are now no longer available.

Take the case of   Silent Knight and Fire Lite

Silent Knight offered 2 protocols SK and Hochiki  Silent Knight now has dropped the Hochiki Protocol

and Fire lite has dropped Clip Protocol for Hyper Speed.

So now you as a building owner who has a 25 year old system who needs parts can not get them.

So you have choices.  Try and find old stock expensive or replace the whole system.

Which is thousands of dollars.  But what many are doing is eliminating devices and bypassing them  and  going without protection in certain areas.

Not a good situation at all. But they are doing it.

So you say well the building owner should have been told and prepared for the systems to be upgraded

But when you put the wrong protocol in even 5 years ago spent $20K for a  new system and now its going to cost you another $20K or more  how do you call that fair.

So  because no one has been keeping their eyes on the situation we now have unsafe buildings because of it.

 

Fire Investigation and AI it could open up a world of new tools for Investigators , But it can also do the same for Arsonists. So who is keeping an eye on it

 As a Fire Investigator new tools and procedures are always welcomed to help prevent and catch those who will do harm to others.

However AI Artificial Intelligence opens up a new world of totally unbelievable possibilities one can not even imagine. So lets look at some of the Good and Bad aspects of it .

For the Investigator AI could help solve previously unsolvable Arson and even Accidental Fires and how they started. AI could be put to task in solving old cold cases as it finds clues missed by investigators .

Imagine you go to a scene do a full 360 video of scene  put it into your AI assistant and it spits out all the possible scenarios as to what happened and when saving painstaking hours of research. Identifies the source of accelerate and spits out possible suspects and where the accelerate was recently purchased

But of course there is always a give and take its the law of nature.

So what could AI  for the Criminal Arsonist 

It could teach them better ways to set fires and not get caught . How to better fool investigators and cover their tracks.

It could develop even more highly flammable substances which do extreme damage before firefighters even arrive on scene  

  So yes there are all kind of possibilities and who is keeping there eyes on it to prevent it from getting out of Hand ?