Where did the fire start?

That’s where the fire would have started but that’s not what caused it.
By Nick Markowitz Jr.

I ran into an unusual situation the other day where a fire could have started but where investigators might easily miss the actual cause of the fire.
One of the services I provide to my alarm customers is keeping an eye on there properties during the winter when there closed. Several of my customers are in summer time business and or also are what we call Snow Birds up here where they like to take off for warmer climate areas during the winter.
Well one of these stores fronts I watch in the New Castle Pa. area sells swimming pools and the store is vacant all winter and heat is turned off and store winterized including putting a 120 vac electric heat tape around the water meter piping.
The owner calls me and asks me to check the store the other day because a contractor has some work to do in there as there getting ready for some remodeling and the heat did not come on correctly. No problem the next morning I head up there and when I walk into the store to shut off the burglar alarm I hear a loud hissing noise from the back. Yea I got a broken water pipe no doubt about it. Just what kind of mess was I going to find and do I have to cut power was my worry.
I look in the back storage room where I hear the leak and find that water is spraying a fine mist out just thru the main shut off valve onto both walls. One stroke of luck though is there is a floor drain catching most of it. The one bad thing is it is spraying directly on an electrical outlet where the heat tape is plugged in and I can smell something burning.
I quickly shut off power call 911 as I do not know who the water supplier for the store is but I will need them to shut it off at the street box. They notify Water Company for me and firefighters came to the store non emergency response and they helped me get the water under control till Water Company arrives.
We set up some dikes and eliminated the water spray on the walls.
The water Company arrives and luckily even with the snow on the ground they know where to look and quickly turn off the water.
Tragedy averted and only one room to clean up.
But what if I had not gotten there in time what if the water caused the outlet to catch fire
The walls where covered with dark paneling and there was a 7 foot ceiling Flexible Fiberglas drop in panels and a wooden deck above it used for storage the room measured aprox 8x8 feet .
If the outlet would have ignited the wall chances are the entire wall would burn down to the studs and just burnt copper wire and a box would be hanging with the extension cord plugged in.
So you arrive on scene and start the investigation it would look pretty conclusive the fire started at the outlet do to a malfunction the water running could be explained away by either the room getting hot enough to loosen solder on pipes and cause the leak or that a firefighter inadvertently damaged during attempts to put it out .
A forensic investigation of the valve might prove it was the culprit if it could be determined the damage was pre not post fire but only if you would run the scenario the piping was even involved because this is one of those fires where it would be very easy due to all the electrical activity at the outlet to say that’s where it started. Plus if the fire was basically kept to just that area how hard would it even be looked at when it appears obvious what happened.
This once again proves out that Fire Science and Investigation is not 100% perfect. And why as an investigator you must weigh all options. Or as in this case could happen the wrong party could be held liable.

Fire Investigation and Junk Science

Why you could find yourself a criminal suspect or civilly liable if you’re involved with a fire.

by Nick Markowitz, Jr.

Everyday there are people who are charged with arson when a fire has taken place in their home or place of business.  How many times charges are warranted is a subject being hotly debated in the fire community today.

The problem is a general lack of training for some investigators. There's even an on going debate among trained investigators as to the cause of these fires. All of this has unfortunately lead to people being arrested and eventually convicted of arson. Many are found civilly liable for causing a fire that they may not have had anything to do with. In one case a Texas man may have even been executed for the crime of arson when he may not have done it.

Now you say to yourself, “WOW! How can this happen in a modern world with DNA and advanced investigative techniques?” Well, it does, and it happens easier than you think. The worst part is trying to right a wrong in court after you've been convicted. It can take decades to be exonerated.

At any one time in this country there are various innocence-type organizations that are fighting for wrongly-convicted people. This includes not only rapists and murderers, but arsonists, too. There are excellent organizations like the IAAI (International Association of Arson Investigators) that provides standards for the training and certification of fire investigators. This includes the prestigious CFI certification. While it is not mandatory in some states to have this or any other type of certification in order to investigate fires, many states, including my own, does not even require that you be certified as  private investigator.

While fire investigators are required to follow the Guidelines of NFPA 921 on fire and explosion investigations, which bases its standards on the Scientific Method, this manual is often looked at as a guide, sometimes even scoffed at. And yet many investigators don't even own a copy.

While it is true that public sector investigators, such as fire marshals, arson investigators, etc., must be certified to do their jobs under the rules of ICC (International Code Commission), in states which follow ICC Codes many don't even know they are required to carry this certification. This includes lawyers as well.

An entire case brought by a fire marshal against an individual for arson could be thrown out of court

if he is not certified by ICC. This is due to a rule generally referred to as as “Fruit of the poison tree” where if one thing is wrong, everything is wrong. Think tree fruit and roots... yet it is allowed to go on.

Then, when it comes down to the court case, it becomes a battle of the experts and who has more initials behind his or her name as well as bravado.

Even learned experts disagree. And when you're a little guy trying to claim something happened a certain way, you can forget it. Since you are an unimportant person, you are nothing even if you are right. Because 921 or an expert says it happened this way and this way only, it's over before it begins.

A General Lack of Open Minds

There are very few open minds in learned professionals because the science tells them otherwise.

Experts as I have found do not want to listen to technical people like myself who are out in the field everyday. I have 30+ years as an electrician, a troubleshooting electrician at that. In addition I also have heavy electronics experience and I often see and observe things before they entirely burn up completely  whereas experts in many cases only know what happened afterwards.

When they investigate a claim they do not have the day-to-day dealings that a troubleshooter or someone of a lower caliber in their opinion has. So they take it off to the lab and if it can not be duplicated, then it could not have happened that way--period.

As anyone of a low caliber, as I have been called in court and fire  blogs, can tell you, when you work in the field and see something that can not be 100% duplicated in the lab, it needs recorded as it is happening in the field. This is what I have been trying to introduce into fire investigation, that sometimes statistics and instruments are not enough. Sometimes they are not accurate because of who is doing the work.

In actuality, only a relatively small percentage of fires are ever investigated. Many times if a fire is small enough, no one ever comes to investigate. The home or building owner, knowing they have a deductible, just handles it and that's the end of the story. Sometimes that damage is negligible or it's easily explained and so it's determined that an investigation is not warranted. But yet because so many of these so-called small change fires are not investigated, patterns and trends can be completely missed. Even potential serial arsonists could be at work and no one knows.

The fact is, small fires can teach us big lessons, but hardly anyone looks at them--they're written up and maybe reported on the state statistical site and that's it. This is why I have, for several years now, worked with and submitted new and different findings to investigators, engineers, and CPSC agents when I go to do my job as a troubleshooter.

Using the Scientific method along with Forensic Techniques, I carefully and thoroughly document a situation, Where I can carefully remove a burned up item I do so and I provide it to others who might be interested in examining it. How many times I have brought in a burned up electrical items and you hear an expert say, “Well, that shouldn’t have happened.”   Well, it did happen and we need to carefully document it and add hat we learn to the collective storehouse of knowledge.

I have found working as an electrician and/or fire photographer that the story I get when I go and repair something and the story an investigator gets is often two different things. When I have been at fires taking photos and I afterwords hand the disc to the fire marshal at his office the next morning and I compare notes with him, the story I get as to what someone saw and what the fire marshal was told is often times totally different. When people talk to me, they’re talking to Nick the photographer, not Nick the official who they may or may not be in trouble with.

I see this all the time as a troubleshooter. People are careful when they talk to an investigator about fires and accidents because they feel they may be blamed and their insurance will not cover it.

Case in Point

A typical matter is the one I had earlier in the spring at a customers fabricating business. The client has several 5-ton, overhead cranes they use in the facility. A couple times now I have had to go down and reset the overload system. Well this time the crane stopped for good. The owner, someone official in people’s eyes who can get them fired, walks in and wants to know whatin the sam hill caused the crane to stop working. The workers tell him, “Well boss, the cranes are old and cranky and probably just died from old age.” 

When I walk in and start working on the cranes and ask questions as Nick the electrician—a working guy just like them--I get the real story. The shop foreman mentioned to me that one of the new guys used the crane to pull a piece of steel out of the rack. I asked him whether anyone told him not to do that and the reply I got was, “No, I was not here when it took place.” I walked over to the employee and explained to him what I found, that the crane motor control blew up from abuse, not old age. I also told him that someone should have used the tow motor instead of the crane to do what they did. He told me that no one showed him how to use one and he was too embarrassed to admit it.

Well that afternoon The foreman had everyone qualify for there tow motor license and things were smoothed out because the new guy did not feel like he was being singled out for training. The boss also was happy because the problem was solved and he did not have to fire anyone as the workers handled it internally. He figured all along they where lying to him but he likes them and their good workers. So as you can see there are often two different story's and this is especially true when horseplay on a job site is involved. When this occurs, things can go very bad, very quickly.

Reflecting on Lessons Learned

My dad, a retired electrician/steel worker, and. one of his buddies from where they retired stopped by my home one day. We talked about a bad accident at a plant down river from us. His friend told us a story about something that had taken place down at the Coke Facility where he worked.

As a joke on the boss’ birthday, they took a prophylactic and blew it up to a huge size with flammable Coke Gas  and then they placed it under his office, which was couple feet off the ground on stilts. They then took a long stick with a hot poker on the end and set the prophylactic off. It naturally shook his office and when he came out all mad and ready to fire everyone, they had this huge birthday cake setup for him. It was then that he realized they where just playing a game with him.

Now lets face it, had this joke gone terribly bad, do you think any of these grown men when questioned by OSHA or a fire investigator would ever admit to what had actually taken place?  It’s for sure there would not be a trace of a prophylactic.

The fact is, poor training is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many fire investigators out there using testimony and methods which have been proven as junk science. Like spaling concrete or gator-looking marks on wood are a sure sign of a poured accelerant. But courts except it. Why? Because attorneys do not know to challenge it with a Daubert hearing to prove the theory. Once something is excepted in court, that’s it for ever. It becomes allowable testimony for a long time unless it happens to be challenged.

This is what got the gentleman in Texas executed, and now, after numerous court reviews, it has brought a rebuke of the courts for allowing bad investigation methods to be used as fact. Well, you can see what the issues are and why cases both criminal and civil can go bad.

Once I was accused of stealing from a school where I worked. Now, the detective should have done his job and found out that I am an Eagle Scout and a general stand-up kind of guy. Instead, he was a hard guy detective who was bound and determined to try and convict me for something I did not do--all because he didn’t like my answers. He  ended up tying up valuable taxpayer money, he got egg on his face, and the real criminal, a temporary cleaner, was finally caught and fired--after three months of stealing things.

Conclusion

Unfortunately too many investigators get it in their minds “this is how something went down” and “this is how it has to be.” They refuse to take two seconds to sit back and say to themselves, “Well, maybe the guy is right after all.”

Luckily the bell has gone off and some have now taken a second look. Some of them have learned that things where wrong with what they thought and they consequently stop cases in progress. Sadly, others. Continue to follow blindly and do whatever they do badly.

Everyday in this world new and completely different results are found. But when it comes to the fire investigation community, unfortunately, if you have a new look at something, it’s like the Spanish Inquisition or the questioning of Galileo concerning whether the Earth is actually flat. Now, I am sure we’ll hear from a few of these learned professionals on the subject.

This is my blog, so speak and make your point and let the readers decide. Who is believable--the guy with 30 + years to the grind stone or a “learned opinion”?

Dealing With Antique Fire Panel Power Issues

Due care must be taken when replacing old AC-type fire systems,
including the use of OSHA lock-out, tag-out procedures

Before there was a fire alarm manufacturing company by the name of FireLite, Silent Knight, etc., with panels which incorporated electronic components in them, there where companies known as Faraday, Auth, Autocall, Standard Time, Edwards, etc. These companies produced panels which ran strictly on 120/240 volts AC and used relays and big wire-wound resistors.

These panels made use of two separate power phases to the panel. If the primary phase would go out, the secondary phase would take over and sound a trouble bell or gong. Big, large AC series wired bells or horns were used in the system to sound the alarm. Some where steady while others pulsed a defined code.

These systems, while primitive next to modern panels, where the Cadillac of their day, however. They where built in big, heavy red or silver steel enclosures which contained large pieces of ½ inch or thicker slate, which the components where mounted to. Yes, they are now dinosaurs, but they where built to run forever. However, as technology has changed, so has the fire alarm industry.

These old panels, which used pull stations and heat detectors to activate them and had no smoke detectors or battery back up, have long past there usefulness. And yet there are still many of them out there in apartment buildings and town halls, even some schools.

As codes evolve in coming years these panels will need to be pulled out and replaced. The replacement of these panels carry with it a high risk of danger to technicians who are not familiar with how power was supplied. The problem starts at how they where wired into the 120/230 volt circuit in the building. This is because the small 30 or 60 Amp knife switch boxes that are wired to provide power to the panels are not fused or breaker protected, like normal knife switch boxes.

Fire alarm systems in those days where required to be wired ahead of the main switch gear so that even if the buildings main breaker was pulled, power was always maintained to the fire system. So when a technician pulls the 120 AC wiring out or they go to install 120 AC wiring in the knife switch box they’re dealing with danger should they make contact with the knife switch’s upper lug assembly.

If you will recall, these knife switches are not typically over current protected. Should a technician slip with a screwdriver, it will physically melt and explode instead of tripping the building’s main breaker. This is why only a qualified electrician should remove and remake the 120 volt connection to these knife switch boxes. The alternative is to plug off and abandon them and bring in a new circuit feed that is properly breaker protected.

OSHA lock-out, tag-out procedures must be utilized when working with these old switches because there is always the potential for the switch assembly to not move properly. There’s also the potential that it will not break, which means that 120 volts will continue to be maintained at the panel.

Technicians should carry and know how to properly use UL-Listed Category I or II, 120-volt AC testers, such as a properly used proximity tester or multi-meter to make sure power is fully off when operating one of these old knife switches. In fact, even when electricians and technicians work on modern breaker-controlled panels, they are by law required to follow OSHA Lock-Out, Tag-Out procedures.

If your technicians are not properly trained in the utilization of this procedure, the fines can be substantial should an accident occur. One single violation of OSHA Lock-Out, Tag-Out can result in a fine of $15,000.00!

Alarm companies may think they are exempt from OSHA, but they are just as responsible as a company with a hundred employees. Not even a one-man shop is exempt from these rules. They must understand and be able to fully implement the safety rules and regulations of OSHA or they operate at their own peril.

Yes, these old AC fire systems bring a lot of laughs and nostalgia and the old slate control boards make neat discussion pieces in the den or office, but they can also kill when not properly handled, so follow the rules and you’ll live to laugh another day.

Don't Forget That Little Green Wire

That simple Green Bonding wire on Fire and Burglar Alarm Cabinets,
it really does nothing and doesn't need
hooked up, right?
WRONG!

by Nick Markowitz, Jr.

A fire alarm system is sounding its trouble signal in a commercial building and the maintenance man has summoned me to check it. He pulls out his ring of keys, inserts them into the lock, then quite suddenly he's unable to move--he is frozen in place.

What exactly has happened here do you suppose?

Well, it's my guess that he's received an electrical shock. Luckily, this time he manages to pull away, but a few seconds more and he could have been toast. So what happened?

It appears the people who installed the fire alarm panel did not do their job properly as they forgot or simply failed to install a small green bonding jumper from the removable panel lid to the back box. This allowed electrical current to flow through the lid when the hot 120 volt wire supplying power to the panel pulled loose, coming in contact with the lid.

Now, had this jumper been bonded from lid to back box, and if the panel had been grounded properly, this event would not have taken place. The breaker would have tripped out and just the trouble signal would have sounded. The problem would have been spotted as soon as the lid was opened. Instead, because the jumper was not used, the maintenance man got a severe jolt.

Grounding and bonding of electrical equipment is critical to assuring that it operates properly. It also assures that any type of overload is cleared. It also assures that if a wire or component disintegrates and touches the metal enclosure in the system, nothing bad will happen to someone working on it.

Now, here's the kicker, not all lids need to be grounded. This is especially true if it is permanently attached to the panel box by means of a full-length piano-type hinge. In this case, code considers the lid properly bonded due to the continual path of metal touching. This is not something you have with a removable lid where only 2 small areas of the lid touch the panel box.

You say "bonding and grounding, what's the difference?"

Bonding is used to eliminate a possible hazard, like with the removable lid. The back box has a ground wire which runs the entire way back to the main service entrance for power. I know it's confusing, but follow the manufacture's guide lines and you'll do just fine. But if you fail to follow them, sooner or later something will fail and there will either be a fire or someone will get shocked.

With electricity it's just like a chain... the weakest link is where the problem will develop.

West Coast manufactuers learn hard lessons

You would expect a machine from Europe to not work the same and require modification To be able to be used in the USA But would you expect the same thing when a West Coast machine is installed on the East Coast? As a trouble shooting electrician I often get called upon to hook up and commission machinery a customer may have bought either 2nd hand or from a country other then the USA and of course you would expect issues when it comes to making everything compatible and working as foreign countries often use different power systems than we do here in America. For example our traditional power system to a home is 120/230 60 Hz while in Europe it is 230 50Hz they supply to homes and business. This can be overcome several different ways and as long as all the rules of electricity is followed different machines from different countries can run with no problems. With this thought in mine you would think that when you buy a machine or system here in the USA it would work just as well in California as it would in Florida or Pennsylvania but this is not always the case. Take the gate system one of my clients bought to use with his mini storage facility. It was installed in may and ran fine all summer long but when it started getting cold in October and then temperatures plunged in November the gate started acting up. After some investigation it was determined that the gate manufacturer was using a active IR beam system that was designed to make the gate stop and reverse should a child or object be under the gate when it closes an excellent safety control but however fatally flawed. The active IR beam was only meant to be used in climates where it is above 32 F And in November in Pittsburgh it often goes well below 32F at night. Thus the problem, when the gate manufacturer was contacted about the problem and it gets so cold here they seemed surprised. Supposedly they tested the gate to 0 F and had no problems. But then again that was in a lab not Pittsburgh with wild temperature swings daily some times the end result the beam needed changed to a beefed up unit. which could handle the cold. Now a manufacturer that makes a product that is supposed to be able to be used any where in the USA you think would do the research and field testing before sending out a product but this is apparently not the case as I hit this problem all the time. Take the Burglar Alarm panel a manufacturer from Oregon was selling in the Pittsburgh area in early 80's These panels had all kinds of great new features but had continual problems of causing false alarms and arming and disarming by themselves. The problem was ultimately found to be that while the panels worked fine on the West Coast where they have good clean electrical power where when they say an outlet is providing 120 volts it actually is . But on the east coast the power is not as clean and as solid some times only 108 might be coming out of an outlet the result the panels advanced microprocessors could not withstand the imbalance and problems developed. To make the panels work properly you needed a filtered /regulated power supply transformer and the panel worked great only problem these transformers at the time cost as much or more than the panel cost. End result they stopped selling product on the east coast where bought and sold several times and are out of business. So then you have to ask your self where was the research and development at with these products? Well apparently there was none. What they should have done is send units out to various parts of the country for what is known as Beta Testing . This is where Alarm dealers like myself test the equipment in the filed to discover if there are problems. Honeywell Security does this and I participate as one of there testers and often times we find problems not encountered in the lab and it provides positive feedback To Honeywell so that they do provide a superior tested out product before releasing it for general sale. Sure these programs cost money and can be a pain to run but in the long run it saves money and face. So why are more companies not doing it? It comes down to the same old thing everything comes down to Money and incompetence. This is just one of many reasons why when companies try to expand and go national or world wide they often fail .Because they do not put enough money into research and development and it comes back to bite them. It's the old story" Plan your work- work your Plan " " or fail to plan –plan to fail.

Home Sprinkler Advocate Voices Opposite Opinion

My piece on home sprinklers, published on 15 May, caused a bit of a stir among those who endorse the mandatory use of sprinklers in the home. A fire marshal based in Oregon wrote me a note and I'd like to feature it here at this time. Be sure to read my reply at the end.

--Nick Markowitz

---- by Eric T. McMullen ----
Monday, May 24, 2010, 11:05 AM

Mr. Markowitz,

I was reading your Blog titled “Things they do not tell you about home fire sprinkler systems” http://nickmarkowitz.blogspot.com/2010/04/things-they-do-not-tell-you-about-home.html and felt compelled to contact you to challenge some of your assertions about fire sprinklers. My computer system at work does not allow me to post a comment directly to your blog, so I thought I’d send you an email.

I will attempt to address your comments in the order you made them;

You mentioned needed a “good” city water pressure, and while good may be a relative term, a residential fire sprinkler system can be designed for pressures as low as 7 psi. I don’t know of many, if any, municipal water supplies that can’t provided 7 psi.

Your point about connection to the water main is valid in many areas. In Oregon, multipurpose systems are allowed to be connected directly to the potable water system. In the case of multipurpose systems, there are no stagnant water issues and no backflow preventer or vacuum breaker requirements. The additional cost of systems development charges and standby fees is a problem, we are attempting to alleviate this problem in Oregon through legislation that will prevent the additional charges and fees on fire sprinkler systems in one- and two-family dwellings.

Your comments about homeowners insurance are just flat wrong and have been for some time now. Many years ago, there were some insurance companies that actually charged more when fire sprinklers were installed, but that Neanderthal way of thinking has long since passed. Every major insurance carrier in the Oregon currently offers discounts for fire sprinklers in one- and two-family dwellings. Insurance companies came to the realization that the amount of damage done by fire sprinkler systems pales in comparison to the damage done by fire, smoke and heat. Scottsdale, AZ has had a fire sprinkler ordinance in place since 1986 and their data indicates losses dues to fire in sprinklered homes averaged $1,945 compared to $17,067 in non-sprinklered homes.

Your estimates on using a well as a water source are quite a bit high, Talco offers a pump and tank package for NFPA 13D systems at a cost of $2,200. The size of the home will not double or triple the cost of the pump and tank, it may increase the size of the tank by 40 or 50 gallons, but that won’t increase the cost much. In many cases, if the well has the capacity, the system can be designed to use the well pump to supply the fire sprinklers and the well casing and recovery rate to satisfy the stored water requirements. I can design a system with flow demands as low as 16 gpm at 7 psi, which many wells can supply.

As far as cold weather and freeze mitigation goes, dry and antifreeze systems are not practical for one- and two-family dwellings for many of the reasons you state, however the standard does allow them. There are practical approaches outlined in the standard to deal with freeze problems in wet systems. While the insulation can be moved, one can make the same case for any water pipes in your home. A fire sprinkler system, installed correctly, has no higher chance of freezing than any other domestic water pipe.

With regard to maintenance, there are practically no maintenance requirements for NFPA 13D systems, and certainly no mandate in the standard to pay a fee or have a third-party inspector do an annual service on the system. Multipurpose systems that are connected to the potable water system need the same maintenance as the other water pipes in your home, which for most folks, is none.

Accidental discharge of a fire sprinkler head is around 1 in 16 million and accidental leaks of the piping are no more common than potable water piping. The story you relayed about the accidental discharge due to a microwave oven is highly suspect. The lowest temperature sprinkler head is 135 degrees Fahrenheit and I find it very hard to believe that kind of heat could escape from a microwave and make it to the ceiling level without dissipating, unless the contents inside the microwave were actually on fire. If you can provide me the actual fire report showing otherwise, I will stand corrected.

Yes, residential sprinkler heads have been recalled, so have coffee makers, laptop batteries, Toyota vehicles…….product issue arise from time to time, it doesn’t mean we abandon a sensible idea because of one recall.

The fire service has never advocated for fire sprinklers only, we have always educated people on the need for both smoke alarms and fire sprinklers as a package together, your chance of survival with both rises exponentially.

In closing, I must say that I am surprised that your blog professes to be about fire and electrical safety, yet you attempt to derail one of the most effective tools we have to guard against dying in a fire in our homes. I have to wonder if, as a master electrician, you feel the same way about GFCIs or Arc Fault protection in our homes?

Regards, Eric T. McMullen

Assistant Chief ~ Fire Marshal
McMinnville Fire Department
McMinnville, OR

---- And my reply ----

Date: Monday, May 24, 2010, 8:21 PM

Thanks for the comments.

Working [water] pressures here in my community are very low where on the tops of hills and people who have opted for systems have had to install tanks per the sprinkler installers. Maybe the installers are wrong or just selling more than needed. Part of the problem is you must be a licensed master plumber to install them in Allegheny County. That's why the [high] cost. This is also a big union area, again [it's] why the costs are so high.

The insurance thing is for real here. [I] had a customer install sprinklers 3 years ago and his premiums went up when he notified his carrier he installed them. Maybe in your part of [the] country, since you have codes in place, they behave themselves, but not here, yet. Maybe once it is state wide they will level out.

As far as microwave going off and causing the damage, I have the pictures. Remember again this was in college housing.

As far as leaks, 6 - 10 residential systems I know customers have in their homes have leaked or frozen up. It is the nature of the weather cycle around here. We're up [and] down all winter and it affects things in ways you would not believe, unless you saw it with your own eyes. We can be 3 degree in morning and 38 by lunch, then back down to zero overnight.

[Regarding] installation issues, I am constantly responding to sprinkler system issues both commercial and residential, even in the summer. I just had a big fight with Penn Hills, Pa fire depts who refused to properly respond to a sprinkler call [where] $10,000 in damage happened.

Some areas over pressure is also a big problem. Just try and find an emergency restoration clean up crew or even a sprinkler crew available here during the winter when temps drop down below zero. I have had to wait 2-3 weeks to get [a] sprinkler company rep on site because of all the damage.

You should talk to Jack Mason, CFI Fire Marshal For Penn Hills and hear all his worries over this.

I have responded to 3 systems so far this year, commercial, where single heads went off for no reason at all.

I am not derailing sprinklers, I am just stating what I know can and does go wrong with them. If we are going to promote things, let's give both sides of the issue. All I hear from sprinkler advocates are rose colored glasses. What kind of backlash do you think is going to happen around here after the sprinklers are in and start popping because of installation issues. People are going to shut them off and ignore them just like the smoke detectors they take the battery's out of because they always false.

Take Anti-lock brakes, [the] greatest thing to come out, however they have killed hundreds who did not use them right, [those who] lifted their foot off [the] pedal when they applied them because they thought something was wrong.

I am glad things are working out over there in Oregon, but your dealing with issues there which are different here. I am not saying "do not put them in," but I am saying, "let's think things through before we mandate something that's going to come back and get us."

When the first person dies in a home with a sprinkler system because we have not explained exactly why and how something works, start expecting lawsuits and TV investigations.

-30-

Things they do not tell you about home fire sprinkler systems

The dirty little secrets the sprinkler
industry does not want to talk about--the
down side to residential fire protection sprinklers.

By Nick Markowitz Jr.

Ok, we have all heard the hype about just how effective sprinkler systems are in stopping dangerous Residential Fires and why they are needed in new home construction because of how light-weight the construction is0--and yes, this is all true. Sprinklers are one of the best ways to protect your family and loved ones, but they come with a lot of conditions that no one wants to talk about. So let's take a good look at sprinklers, things that can go wrong, and the true cost of implementation.

First problem is the water supply. Where you have good city water pressure you can do a house for around $2500.00, even less if you use standard PVC pipe instead of fire rated  PVC, like Blaze Master. But this is where the problem begins.

Are you going to be allowed to take the sprinkler water off the house water main or will you have to put in a separate water main at the commercial water rate  at an install cost of $5000.00? Also, will you have to install a special back flow preventer at $500.00, which requires annual inspections of $65.00, or perhaps a standard vacuum breaker at $20.00?

What about if you're not home and the system starts to discharge by accident? Will neighbors hear the bell or horn and call 911? Or will you need to have it monitored at $30.00 a month plus $1500.00 for the fire alarm monitoring panel.

Also, what about your homeowners insurance. Will it go down because you're making things safer? Nope! In fact, people who have installed sprinklers voluntarily in their homes have seen insurance rates double or more because of the potential for water damage!

But what if you do not have good water pressure, or let's say you have a well. All I can say is "Get ready to shell out another $5000.00!" This $5K will buy you a pressurized water tank in the ground. And if you have a really big home, the price can be double or even triple that!

We're just getting started here folks.

How about the cold winters some of us experience across the country. There are several ways to deal with this issue and each one has its good and bad points, just as we've found with commercial building sprinkler systems.

One system is known as a dry system where the pipes are filled with air, which holds a valve closed until a sprinkler head activates. When this occurs, the air leaves the piping which allows water to flow through the pipes. A small oil-less compressor is required to keep pressure constant in a dry-type system. This is because of the expansion and contraction of the pipes. You also need to keep the drip drum at the end of the piping emptied of condensate to prevent the drum from freezing and blowing off.

As we have found in commercial buildings, these compressors lose power, drums do not get emptied, and the first hard freeze sends water everywhere. While dry systems work excellently when maintained properly, when they're not, they can cause a good bit of misery.

Then there is the option to add additional insulation in and around pipes to prevent freezing, and though this also works, any movement of the insulation by repair people, kids in the attic, etc., can leave the pipes vulnerable if not properly replaced. Again this works well but maintenance is the key.

Still another option is to use special antifreeze in the pipes. This works well but as they found out in one California residential community where a sprinkler company mixed its own antifreeze, it came out of the pipes during a kitchen fire and when it mixed with the hot cooking oil it exploded. This resulted in the death of a middle aged woman, which brings us to another subject. The sprinkler Industry says "There has never been a multiple fatality in a fully-sprinkled structure where a sprinkler system has been properly installed and maintained."

Well, guess what. Properly maintained means another fee... so expect to pay $150.00 annually for a sprinkler system test and hope you get a company that will actually do a proper test. For that matter, hope you get a contractor who properly installs your sprinkler system in the first place because overnight every Tom, Dick, and Harry will suddenly be in the sprinkler business.

Then, of course, what about when the sprinkler head does go off. Proponents of home sprinkler systems claim it will not be like the ones you see in movies... but they're not telling the whole truth either. Although residential heads are slower than commercial grade, they still put out a considerable amount of water.

I can personally attest to this where a Class R-13 residential sprinkler system was installed in college housing in California Pa., where there was not even a fire. All it was that triggered the incident was a blast of heat from a microwave oven when a student heated food wrong. A single sprinkler head destroyed the kitchen where all the drywall needed replaced. In addition, water leaked through to the room under it, destroying a ceiling. The total bill for this was approximately $8,000.00.

And yes, a sprinkler head and sprinkler piping can and will leak if pressure in the piping is accidentally increased by a faulty pressure regulator. This can also happen due to age as these systems deteriorate. It happens in commercial systems so why would it not in residential?

There has even been a massive sprinkler head recall by several manufacturers because of sprinkler heads that did not trip when there was a fire... and yes you can get false sprinkler alarms when pressure in piping changes. It happens in commercial buildings any time there's a major water break near by and water is turned back on later.

Something to also consider is why just not shut the system off after every one inspects and leaves? Yes you could do this but then again will the insurance company still be required to pay your claim because you shut the system off?
Also keep this in mind, when the first sprinkler systems where installed, it was done for property protection, not for human safety.

Sprinkler systems are by no means the 100% perfect answer. You could well have a properly maintained sprinkler system and still die in a fire in your home from smoke inhalation if the fire develops in the same room where you are located. A classic example would be a person who smokes in bed. A fire which starts in a bed will set off the sprinklers, but well after flames and or smoke have killed you. This is why it is important to still have and use smoke detectors.

So as you can see, all the hype about sprinklers you're hearing does not tell the downside. Over the next few years, you and the community you live in will have to deal with the politics associated with today's huge push for sprinklers in the home.

Fires of an Industrial Nature

Industrial Machine Fires
A look at what a troubleshooter finds.
When he repairs them and what he finds that causes them

By Nick Markowitz Jr.
Qualified Electrical Contractor

When I'm not involved with fire investigation and research work, I work as a master-level electrical and electronic troubleshooter. I do this for different companies as well as contractors. When they have a problem that their normal maintenance people or electricians can not find, I'm the guy they call.

In the 34+ years of doing this work I've enough stories to fill several books over. However, there are several recurring issues I see on an almost daily basis that causes the vast majority of machinery and equipment related fires. Many of these come back to:

1. the wrong fuse or circuit breaker for over-current protection
2. and the wrong application of parts being used and for the voltages used

Take the machine shop which called me couple weeks back. They had an Italian-made auto-feed radial drill which kept blowing fuses. When they could no longer get the special 25 Amp beer-bottle-shaped German fuses, someone got the bright idea of replacing the fuse with a standard 25-Amp, Class-R American fuse.

So the machine operator fiddled around and got one to fit in the socket, started the machine up and it ran fine, until the end of the shift when there was a noise in the gear head. He immediately shut down the machine and looked everything over. Then when he went to restart the machine, there was a loud buzz then a pop and lots of smoke. There had been a single phasing power condition in the plant and one phase was out, which he did not realize. When he went to start the machine, instead of the fuse blowing like it should, the fuse held and a $3,500.00 gear motor was toast from the single phasing condition.

So what went wrong... a 25-Amp fuse is a 25-Amp fuse, right? Answer: wrong!

The German-made fuses where a class J fuse, which blows very quickly compared to the Class R fuse that the machinist used. The problem is equipment made in the USA follows the NEMA (National Electric manufacturers Association) Standard for Electrical Equipment, which allows for a small amount of damage before a fuse blows. Compare this to overseas' equipment which is made to the IEC (International Electrical Commission) Standard, which allows no damage at all, and that is accomplished by fast-acting fuses. This is why when you compare a motor starter relay for a USA machine to a IEC machine, the USA fuses are three times the size of the IEC built machines.

This is also where many problems get started. When you go into a Industrial supply house and order a Type 00 NEMA starter USA made, they're in the $400-900 range while a comparable Type 00 in IEC is in the $200-300 range. So you know what happens, you get a mix of NEMA and IEC components and wiring and you have a disaster in the making.

Not only are components manufactured to different standards, so is the wiring in the machine. IEC involves wire sizes using metric measurement. USA machines use the AWG or American Wire Gauge standard. So the question is, can IEC and NEMA exist in the same machine? The answer to this is "yes they can, if proper design is followed, which means proper sized and type fuses and wiring as well as withstand ratings, which brings us to another problem, wrong components on wrong voltages.

I received a call from a large institutional facility with an Olympic-sized pool which used several of the same motors. They kept having problems with motors 3 and 4 always burning out. And this last time it caught the pump room on fire, which was put out with a hand extinguisher. I saw the problem on first view--the wrong motors where being installed.

The pump house has a 120/208 VAC, 3-phase, 4-wire service and 2 of the 4 motors where rated for 230 volts only . They where not dual rated 208/230 volts like the other 2 motors. These 230 volt motors will run on 208 but on hot summer days when the voltage can dip they will overheat and stall.

So you have 2 options, buy a proper 208/230 volt-rated motor or install what are known as Buck/Boost transformers in line with the motor. This allows a 230-only motor to operate on 208 Boost mode or a 208 only motor on a 230 volt line or Buck mode. They put the proper dual-rated motors in and have not had a problem since. **

I ran into a similar but different problem in a Fabricating shop where they kept blowing Relay's and motor starters out in a large metal shear.
This is a big boy it can handle a 18' foot piece of high carbon steel up to ¾ " thick and they where running it on 480 Volts 3 phase but when I opened the lid to the controls it was marked 230 volts ac only? What was this machine doing on 480 volts? Well it seems the electrician who came and installed the machine convinced the owner that the machine would run much more efficient on 480vs 230 which is usually the case but not this time.

He should have installed a step down transformer from 480 to 230 but what he did was just change the motor leads which let them run on 480 volts. Which you can do the motors are rated 230/480 volt but the problem was the relays and other components were all rated to handle 300 volts maximum and while the machine would run on 480 it was overwhelming and burning up parts. This also presented a danger to the operators because at least once the lid on the control box blew open from the violent reaction from parts shorting out.

In this case because the transformer was going to run over $2500.00 it was cheaper to just replace all the 300 volt undersized parts with parts rated to 600 volts. Which is what the previous electrician should have done but did not.

He then showed me a machine called a Iron Piranha it nibbles and punches steel plates and was always blowing out and burning up the control relay here the proper voltage relay was installed but not the proper amperage withstand rated one. The relay was designed to handle 600 volts at 15 amps but the machine draws 25 amps and while the relay could handle an occasional cycle of 25 amps thru it when the machine was being constantly used it could not and the relay would catch fire so a 30 amp rated relay was installed which handled the load plus gave the machine a safety factor when it was in constant use .While working at this facility one of his customers who was picking up an order, asked me to come over to his oil blending facility seems the lights always blinked in back work area of the plant and electronic items were getting damaged from surges. Now this was a long run but the wiring seemed sized right and terminated right but when I put my meter at main service it was 120/230 but when I got to the shop side it was 20 volts low on one side and 30 volts high on the other phase. I suspected a loose Neutral wire which can cause this condition but they seemed tight it was when I started following the neutral wire out thru the shop I was horrified to find the neutral wire
was not going back to the main service but to a steel beam which was being used as ground and was causing the voltage imbalance. They arranged to have a proper sized neutral line run from the shop to main service and all the problems disappeared.

This could have been disastrous if the neutral wire had fallen off the steel beam all the items in the shop would have produced 230 volts at there receptacles causing a fire due to the imbalance. This is why electrical services have a ground rod and ground to metal water pipe should the neutral be lost coming in off the pole, besides the other safety issues they handle.

As you can see there is a lot more to know about machines than the typical text book or training class provides. The other problem with machines and equipment is that until the 2007 NEC code there was no set standard to be followed with the designing of machines

Only a couple paragraphs and good common sense. But wait are not all machines suppose to be UL or other 3rd party rated what about OSHA .Well the answer comes down to who was enforcing what code in what area and when it comes to industrial machines it is anything goes. Yes you will find UL listed components but the whole control most likely is not unless it is for special applications like Elevators or hazardous locations like Petro Chemical plants.

NEC now has guide lines which are supposed to be followed but go into any maintenance
Shop or for that matter many electrical contractors' shops and see if you can find a NEC or any other code book. Unfortunately there are many electrical contractors who never get there work inspected or permitted and maintenance people only know what the other guy taught them. And since Heavy Commercial and Industrial sites rarely get inspected for anything other than OSHA coming by if a complaint has been filed there is several generations of wiring and machinery which has been installed any way any one cares to.

This is why these types of fires are difficult to investigate and determine a cause unless an investigator has strong engineering skills in this particular area.
Because when it comes time to pointing fingers, who do you point them at?
And unless it is a considerable loss to an insurer or there's death or serious injury most claims are just paid or never even turned in they just have some one come and fix it, and hopefully they know what there doing.