Who will fill this retiring Fire Marshals Shoes?

His name is Jack Mason CFI  and he has been the Fire Marshal of Penn Hills  for over 30 years  and he is retiring this week after a very long and dedicated career to keeping the Penn Hills community and Western Pa. safe from fire.
Jack is much more than just your average Fire Marshal  he is also a Certified Fire Investigator  thru the IAAI International Assoc of Arson Investigators which means he brought to the community modern scientific based investigations not junk science and old wives tales and got solid answers and convictions in arson cases . He also serves as the community's Emergency Management Coordinator as well . As Fire Marshal he has made friends and plenty of enemy's as well because he has evenly enforced building and fire codes. Being a fire marshal is not an easy job your on call 24/7 -365 days a year . To handle everything from illegal burning to fire alarm inspections and approvals to fire and arson Investigations .
In Penn Hills Jack has changed the community from a Hooterville to a modern day safe community  with the implementation of the BOCA codes back in the early 80's .
When Jack first started as Fire Marshal the only fire fighting precautions that had to be taken in Apartment buildings in Penn Hills was having buckets of sand available to put out fires.
because Penn Hills in effect had no codes other than very weak state codes thats why he fought for and got BOCA codes implemented which have now finally grew  into the state wide ICC Building and Fire Codes .
Most citizens in Penn hills have no idea what Jack has done to make this community modern and safe I could right for days about it .
This is exactly  what I am very concerned about I do not want to see Penn Hills go back to its Hooterville days which is what many people want done where inspections are lackadaisical or not done at all  and yea go ahead and do that we will turn our heads attitude.   I know Jack is worried about it to  but he has done more than his share and he can not do it forever all he can do like me is lead by example and he now deserves to enjoy his retirement which I am sure will be spent sharing all his knowledge with others as he has authored hundreds of articles for the fire service.
So good luck Jack you deserve this time off to reflect and enjoy your senior years you really did earn it the hard way.
As for Penn Hills lets do the right thing not the Hooterville thing . But I have little doubt this will happen. Knowing the way Penn Hills officials have behaved in past and present as Penn hills will continue to be the Laughing Joke it has always been when you mention the community's name anywhere in Pa. or the Tri state with infamous incidents like when  fire dept  224  tied  the Inner tube and towed it behind the fire squad truck incident in Penn hills Park one snowy evening and the whole Sewage Dumping incident  which lead to the community pleading guilty to a felony  and has cost multi millions of dollars to fix and sewage fees that cost an arm and leg.
 At this point Penn Hills will probably no longer have a fire marshal and it will be all 3rd party inspection which  by law  their required to have a Fire Marshal as their a Home Rule community but following law and doing right has always been a choice around here. Sad but true.

Teaching Kids about Electrical Safety at Home

Practise what you preach – teach kids plugging too many plugs into one socket is dangerous, and then don’t buy plug extenders! Image via Tolomea

It’s estimated that there are close to 3000 accidents at home resulting from electric current every year in the UK, and unfortunately almost a quarter of these accidents happen to children under the age of 15.

Not all of these accidents were fatal, but some were. Even if an electrical accident doesn’t kill you, it can still cause a serious and sometimes life-changing injury, or cause a secondary risk such as a fire.

Children, especially young ones, are often unaware or unable to comprehend these risks, so it’s important that as their parent or carer you take the necessary precautions to keep them safe.

Here are my top tips on teaching kids about electrical safety:

Explaining Electricity

First and foremost, you may need to explain to your child just what electricity is!

Young children have no concept of things they can’t see, so it may be useful to take them to an exhibition or museum where they can see static electricity in action, and explain that the electricity at home is the same but ‘invisible’ and can be dangerous.

Static electricity shows can be a great way to help young kids visualise electricity. Image via Ericskiff

Sockets

Most electrical sockets nowadays are fitted with safety catches to cut off the flow from the earth wire if little fingers go prying around inside, but older ones aren’t, and even if your sockets are brand new, is it really worth the risk?

Teach children that nothing – fingers, toys... – must ever be put into the sockets on the walls.

Young children in particular love to do what they’ve been forbidden to do, so it’s also a good idea to invest in some high-quality socket covers that only an adult can pry off. Yes, it’s annoying having to take them in and out every time you want to vacuum or iron, but you cannot put a price on the safety of your child.

Appliances

The same goes for appliances – teach your children the dangers of putting a knife in the toaster, or touching the back of the TV.

If you’re guilty of these things yourself, make sure your child never sees. Kids learn by imitation and he or she might not have noticed that you only put the knife into the toaster to get your stuck toast when it was switched off!

Remember to teach kids about the dangers of mixing electricity and water. Explain that electricity can travel through the water and hurt them, even if they’re not touching the appliance!

Show them that there are no sockets in the bathroom for this reason, and explain that anything that’s plugged in must be kept well away from bath tubs and sinks. Even electric power showers can be dangerous if faulty so ask them to tell you immediately if they notice something broken.

Teach young kids to recognise danger signs. Image via Jonny2Love

Power Lines

Electrical safety extends further than just the home. Show your child a “Danger High Voltage” alert, electrical warning signs and even just what a transformer looks like (as unfortunately they don’t all have signs!) and explain that they must keep well away from power lines, transformers and other electrical equipment they may come across outdoors.

Don’t let children fly a kite near power lines, or climb nearby trees. Again, explain that electricity can travel through the kite string to them, and that electricity can jump so the kite doesn’t even need to touch the wires to be dangerous.

Teaching your children about electrical safety can save their life – but don’t rely on them understanding or behaving! Kids are notoriously contrary, so take the necessary precautions yourself too such as installing socket covers and fixing faulty wires the moment you spot them.

It’s always better to be safe than sorry!

Is it time to Retire Fire Bells after incident at Apartment building

I have not installed a bell on a fire system since 1986 but prior to that time horns where rarely used. When I went to schools in 60-70's bells sounded for class change and pulsing bells  for fire drills but not any more almost all fire systems installed since late 80's now have horns  and strobes.

So is it any wonder then when a local only fire alarm system falsed at an apartment building and younger tenants ignored it till an older resident heard it and called 911.

Younger people have almost always heard horns for fire alarms not bells the only time you see bells being used any more is Sprinkler flow alarms when a fire system is not being used and for door bells and elevator emergency's  and horns mostly use  code 3 ANSI  tone pattern to get attention for it over other noise makers as well.  maybe it is time to retire the bell. I will be doing this at the apartment buildings in this complex especially after many people say they never heard the bells with all the AC units running.  I will be updating an old Faraday AC system and putting in horns as well this coming week at an office building as I upgrade the system.

Maybe it is time for the bell to go away and maybe this to could be why so many people ignore railroad crossing because of bells as well maybe its time horns and tones are standard fair.because I young people do not understand.

Another Fantastic wireless product from Honeywell security

The 5877 stand alone relay is the latest product release from Honeywell and It is a winner I got to Beta test it last month.

It allows you to operate a gate or garage door etc. with out having to physically run a wire to it.

plug the transformer in above the garage  opener motor attach 2 wires across the push button switch terminals and your done. push the button on unit hit button a fob you ant to use to open door it learns up to 7 of them and your done the led on cover can even tell you if system is armed or not if your have a receiver with transmitter in it like 6160 RF keypad. only bad thing which may be corrected by now when I tested them the closure only lasted 1 second and some garage doors did not respond fast enough. otherwise this is what I have been looking for for many years instead of having to put in some one else' s stand alone product when you get those tough installs like a detached garage. keep up the great work Honeywell. I am glad you put one of my ideas to work. as many dealers wanted this.

Assianine decisions by UL and NFPA Put the Public at danger when it comes to how Fire systems communicate

UL and NFPA have totally and completely  failed when it comes to understanding how modern VoIP communication systems work . There strong and weak points. Specifically when it comes to Dial up tone over VoIP and how  the Digital Dial Up Dialer's   fail to catch problems with modern VoIP provided dial tone.
UL and NFPA still want 2 phone lines hooked up  it  is worthless on VoIP dial up if the VoIP signal goes out both lines goes  out . Worse yet the voltage detector on the dialer never picks this fact up as voltage is still maintained when VoIP signal goes out . Unlike traditional land lines.
Any time I hook a fire panel to VoIP I strongly encourage customers to have a back up cellular communicator . Even if it is not UL Commercial fire communicator  its better than running just via VoIP dial tone. and its permitted under codes as an ancillary device.

With this in mind you think UL and NFPA would be more prudent in how they allow systems to communicate and not interfere with there designs.
Below is a picture of a Honeywell IGSM Internet and Cellular communicator.

As you can see it is a compact design with a self contained battery so even if you cut lines to it it still goes out by cellular . It also has a front tamper switch and rear tamper option so any one trying to open it sets off the alarm .the unit is supervised to the alarm panel and warns of cellular or internet is not available and can be set to test every 24 hours or 30 days like a dial up communicator.

It uses the internet as Primary communication path and cellular as back up via 3 different radio bands
its sends signals first via GPRS and if this does not work then by SMS service in effect 3 distinct methods to make sure this signal gets thru.

But unfortunately for UL Commercial fire this is not good enough   Instead if you want to use this unit for Commercial fire you must use the IGSMCF  as shown below.

Notice how the IGSM has been put inside a tampered metal cabinet which effectively stops the cellular signal from getting out and instead there's an external antenna which can be easily unscrewed and tampered with. To make matters worse this communicator has to be supervised to cell tower every 10 minutes or central station notified which means that $10.00 a month cell charge is now $24.95 a month and higher depending on usage. The question is who was the ass who required this unit to be put in a red metal can and made more vulnerable to tampering and makes it  more costly to monitor a fire panel when it does not have to be the case.  In many cases cellular service is much more stable than VoIP  voice dial up lines so why this massive beef up when it is not needed. and goes to further dissuade customers to not want to pay for monitoring their property. due to the high costs. There is no justification to have to install this communicator which actually makes your install a less safe unit. Yes the central will know when the antenna is unscrewed but  with the normal unit you can not do this  and communications is assured vs. we know there's a problem at site but do not know whats going on. Why would UL make such an asinine decision and put people at risk.
Well as usual it all comes down to special interests, graft and corruption . With people in the industry pushing there own agendas instead of whats best for the community.Because they can bullshit there way thru things instead of actually fully understanding how the technology works. Never talk to us guys in the field make a decision based solely on junk science not fact based matters

Which communicator would you want protecting your property the normal unit or the beefed up unit. I will take the normal unit any time over the way UL and NFPA want it. Like I have said before its time for UL and NFPA to go away and a new group of codes people come into force.

This Old Faraday AC Only Fire system came with a dangerous Suprise

This  AC Only Type Faraday 400 series panel was installed in 1960's in a building in Beaver County.

The only supervision is the Bell circuit which uses bells wired in series you can see in picture above the Transformer at bottom of panel which is used to set the tap required depending how many bells where used in the circuit. Normally 2 single breakers or fuses feed power to the system . Often times the power is feed directly ahead of the main . But not in this case the wiring is protected by the main  breaker . This makes it safer to work on but not in this case . while examining the panel to remove and update it I found an extra power circuit running thru the cabinet  to power the phone systems near by. This circuit should not even be anywhere near this fire panel and was obviously fooled with by a non electrician who was too lazy to run it back separate and instead used the conduits for the fire alarms power supply.  Being an electrician familiar with these systems I intermediately caught the problem how ever your average installer tech never would have and could have received a severe shock  .

Needless to say this will have to be corrected and noted to prevent future installers from getting hurt.

Passing of a Fine Police Officer and Friend

Sam Caltagirone for 25 years  was a Police officer with the Pittsburgh Police dept in the last part of his career he was the  Community Relations Officer  at the old #7 Police station on Mary st. in Pittsburgh's South Side  the district is now known as Zone 3# .
Part of his responsibility as Community relations Officer SAM was in charge of BSA Law Enforcement Explorer Post 777#

Which I belonged to which encouraged law enforcement careers. I never went into Law Enforcement but did work as a security Officer  for a while till going full time into the trades since I could not pass the physical.  to be a Police Officer ,EMT or Firefighter.

We Often took trips to many areas to see Law Enforcement officers in action including a trip to Florida during Daytona  Bike Week  when we got to go up into center field at the Daytona 500 racetrack  to see a temporary detainment  set up for handling bikers who where not behaving properly . and a trip to Montreal where we got to learn about the Canadian Mounties and actually got to see them work out with there horses in drills and one officer even dressed up in his dress red uniform  like you see in the movies so we could take pictures.  That was all 35 years ago and I have not seen Sam or any of the other members since then Last time I saw Sam was at his house when I fixed his Air conditioner before he moved to Florida. Sam was a WWII Navy Vet  as where many officer who served the city back then part of the greatest generation like my uncles who served there country and why we are free today. Sam was 85


 I do not know if any of our members ever went into Law Enforcement  at least not in Pittsburgh none of there names has ever popped up.
Unfortunately one of our members Herbie was murdered and hacked to death with a machete in Down town Pittsburgh at a  store on Liberty Ave. We was working as night clerk  at when he was robbed and abducted.
Yes there where some great memory's from back then  . but all the posts at all 8 police stations are no more. and to my knowledge there is no active Law enforcement Explorer post in my area any more.

Sad Day in Pittsburgh Business Community Death of Ron Morris

His name is Ron Morris and he Passed away after a 10+ year battle with stage IV Pancreatic cancer
a modern day Entrepreneur who started and sold 12 successful High Tech business  in Pittsburgh and who started   " The American Entrepreneur " radio show back in the 1990's  

http://www.taeradio.com/

He started on What was WPTT now WMNY  1360 AM a 5000 watt station  in Pittsburgh  Pa. with a 3 hr Saturday show on business and expanded it to a 7 day operation  3 hours every day including 3 hours on Sunday on WPGB 104.7 FM

Ron was the type of guy who has been there and done it in business Much Like  Bruce Williams a business radio legend who still hosts shows on Ron's talk shoe internet based radio network.
 

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/main.jsp?pushNav=1&cmd=home

 which allows you to host your own internet  radio shows.

I often called Ron on the air to discuss business issues and keep him up on the latest tech offerings and got to meet him at a live radio show several years back while going thru cancer my self at Enterprise Bank one of his advertisers .

He even made me one of his M.O.E.'s  " Master of Entrepreneurship " I still have hat and shirt he sent me.   with slogan on them " Out of Chaos Opportunity " I wore it the whole time the G20 summit was in Pittsburgh and every one got a kick out if it

So much knowledge now gone . He will be sadly missed and I am sure he is sitting right now with St. Peter pitching him his latest ideal. RIP Ron. It was your time to go and others are ready now to fill those big shoes.

A Dangerous Legacy of old Bell Telephone Transformers

At left is 2 pictures of a Plug in transformer that was used in many commercial buildings to supply power  for telephone functions a smaller version was used in homes to light up the dial on rotary  princess phones which you often found in a homes bedroom which allowed you to answer the phone and dial in the dark.
The phone had a 4 wire instead of traditional 2 wire connection  the red and green pair provided dial tone while the yellow black was used to run the ac power to the phone to light the dial. Later phone versions used the phone line power but where not as bright.

The problem with these little transformers all over the place is they are now going on over 50 years old still plugged in drawing a small amount of power and in some cases  the transformers are deteriorating and causing problems which include shock and fire. In one case in a residence which had metal mesh under its plaster a transformer went bad and sent electrical current all over the house and was giving people shocks any time they touched metal.had I not caught the problem and corrected it eventually there would have been a fire. Now you would think ma bell would start hunting all these transformers power supply s etc down and start removing them due to all the potential problems and liabilities but that will never happen . with all the mergers, bankruptcy's etc. there is no company to hold responsible . So that leaves it up to you the property owner  and me the electrician to find and eliminate them before they become a problem.  Do not ever expect any agency to ever come out with a warning either this problem has been known for at least 25 years and no body has done any thing about it. not even the insurance company's who are very aware these transformers are causing problems. So you the consumer get screwed again. By greed.

What are those weird looking donut looking things you see on service wires

You see them on all kinds of commercial buildings where the service entrance wires come in from the electric power company they look like a donut with a hole thru it what purpose do they serve .
There called Current Transformers or CT 's as we call them in the trade.
There used to meter the power being used.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_transformer

In picture at left is a set of indoor current transformers you will find in commercial buildings electrical rooms  usually behind a locked cabinet with high voltage warning tags.

When measuring current being used the typical meter can not handle the 

amount of power coming thru it as in this case is 800 amps . So what is done instead is the main service wires are run thru the these donuts looking units which convert it down to a safe measurable current.

Ct's are used not only on electrical services but any where large amounts of current need measured. some are even used with small LED bulbs which turn on to show you power is running thru the line at that time and active or to turn on other items. They come in all types and sizes as well. depending on what the application calls for. One bad thing about CT's even after power is turned off they can some times still hold a powerful charge which needs discharged. This is why only properly qualified electricians should be handling and servicing them.

Voltage is not right Buck or Boost it ?

 One of the big problems when it comes to preventing problems with machinery which has electric motors  in buildings with 3 phase power is making sure the machine is wired for the correct voltage. There are 2 basic 3 phase systems in use in many commercial buildings today . 3-phase 3 wire systems which provide 230 volts phase to phase  Delta configuration which does not have a neutral wire  and more standard a 3 phase 4 wire system Y configuration  which is 208 volts  phase to phase  and 120 vac phase to neutral. So. You go out and order a new machine have it installed on the 3 phase and 5 weeks later the machine has died. OK what has happened well it turns out the service is providing 208 volts but the motor is wired specifically for 230 volts which meant the motor did not have enough power and burned it self up . Now what you can not get a 208 motor you need to fit. This is where a Buck or Boost transformer comes into play. In the above scenario a boost transformer will take the 208 volts and make it 230 volts . Which you can see in pictures at left is being done in an office buildings mechanical room for a dentists suction pump system.  But if you have a 208 motor and need it to run on 230 volts so it will not burn up then you need a Buck transformer which will take voltage from 230 to 208 vac . Motors burning up particularly in summer time is always a problem when wrong motors are specified. now with some foresight you can order a motor which can be run on 208 or 230 volts

 and the a buck or boost transformer is not needed but all too often a motor burns up before some one realizes the wrong motor has been ordered. This happened to one of my institutional customers who kept blowing up swimming pool motors and people who installed them where installing the wrong voltage motors. The idiot company kept insisting I was wrong and after it happened a 3rd time the local power company engineer came on site and told them I was correct there 230 volt motors would not run on the 208 services.Needless to say the swimming pool service company had to eat the cost of 3 bad motors due to there own ignorance of electrical systems. Plus all the labor cost.
But had they actually been trained individuals instead of some wannabe electricians then they would not have suffered this embarrassment .same old story people are too dam lazy to get properly trained and some one pays and some times people get hurt or die. but that's just the way it is  in life. particularly in Pa. since we have no state electrical license.

End of an Era in Mon valley

In the middle of the Rust Belt of old and long gone Steel mills one of the last remnants of that era has closed. Harco Electric on Braddock ave. in Braddock Pa. was one of the last of the Industrial Electrical supplies  in the Mon Valley He closed and has decided to retire after 60 + years in business. I often stopped in there for industrial electrical supplies you could find no where else. This now leaves Stanton Industrial Electric Supply as the last Mohican in the area.  Its a shame to see all the different industrial supply houses close and wither as did the steel industry . Some like Harco held on because of the unique items they carried while others went quickly.
Braddock itself while having one of the last operating mills in the valley has fallen on hard times as well as most of the little shops along main street are gone and torn down but Holly Wood has taken a liking to the towns gritty work and has filmed several movies there including one being done currently. But it is very doubtful Braddock will ever come back to what it was like so many river mill and coal towns in the area.
 But there is a glimmer of hope as some manufacturing jobs are starting to trickle back to this area but with automation many previous jobs are no longer available as a robot or other technology now does the job.  Hope you enjoy your well deserved retirement Mr. Harco   But it is a sad day to see you go.

Only took them 70 years to figure out they need extra support screws on RS covers

At left is a Single Duplex  RS Cover or raised cover typically found in Commercial Structures and residential basements. They have been around since at least the 1930's  a safe and convenient way to surface  mount switches and outlets on walls . But with one big problem up until a decade ago the Receptacles  where only held in place by a tiny number 8# screw in the center and nothing else and if this screw came loose the outlet fell into the box allowing the plugged in device to short out and or cause an electric shock. With the use of many plug in transformers that use the center screw  like those used for alarm systems you had to carefully remove the screw then hopefully plug in the transformer and tighten the new screw with out shocking your self or you had to track down the breaker and shut off the power to the outlet to safely secure it.
Well some genius designer finally figured out hay we need to add 2 screws with nuts and washers to help hold the outlet in place to prevent these problems. Since late 90's it has been code but there are millions of the old outlets out there waiting to hurt people when the screw falls out and nothing in the code addresses repairing them. But that's the way it has always been with codes address a problem but never correct the original problem just go ahead and grandfather it till it fails and needs replaced with a new code compliant part.
The usual Screw OFFS at UL and NFPA strike again  . Fix an issue but do not really fix it.