Fire Officials and Firefighters Want you to put in Sprinklers and have Smoke Detectors in your home . But how many of them have them? Yes another fire Station burns to the ground in Pa.

Around midnight on June 200th a fire is spotted in the Robinson Twp  Fire Station.

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2015/06/21/2-firefighters-injured-in-blaze-at-volunteer-fire-department/

Firefighters arrived and saved one truck driving it out thru the station doors and 2 firefighters where injured trying to save other vehicles and items but in the end the station is a total loss and $500,000.00 in damage . 

Photo Credit KDKA

They have no set up a go fund me account to help replace gear and vehicles which insurance will not cover.

But we are back to the same question why was there no sprinklers or smoke detection system ?

We have Fire Stations and Fire Houses all over the tri-state which have no fire protection systems of any kind and millions of dollars in often  taxpayer either fully or partially  paid for  gear  sitting in them unprotected.

Yes the same people who want you to install Smoke Alarm  and Carbon Monoxide Detectors in your existing home  and Sprinklers in your new home have nothing in theirs and there is no excuse for it.

I have been in Firefighters private family  homes even chief officers homes and no Smoke detectors 
nothing protecting their own family's but they insist you have them .
Had they had a  fire system in the fire station  it would have activated firefighters would have arrived to a much smaller fire and had damage to the building but far less damage and probably saved most of their gear . 

From all reports It appears they had no system or if they did it was limited in size and scope of what it did. 

The Most Dangerous Place you can take your family this Sunday? Too many times its your Local Church ?

Yes sad but true the most dangerous place to take your family on Sunday might well be the local church you are attending .
WHY?

Poorly kept buildings and work done to them by church members or hack contractors  who have no business doing the work.
In fact 75% of the churches I have been in as a contractor working or visiting have 2 or more items which should be red tagged and put out of service and in some cases building code violations are so heinous  as the church should not be allowed to hold services.

Why then is the church allowed to conduct services if there are such bad things going on inside ?

Mainly it is because local code enforcement does not crack down on churches like they do normal business.
Many churches have not been properly inspected in decades  .

Why all the bad work and why is it tolerated ?

A good question with many answers.

As you can see in the above pictures 

Churches due to finance reasons  must often relies on volunteers to do work and these volunteers are some times trained professionals but most are nothing but  hacks who think they know what they are doing  and have no business touching a tool let alone work in a church. 

The poor work is put up with and churches think nothing of letting any one swing a wrench after all their hearts are in the right place. 

In the mean time these hacks put churches in worse shape and  often cause thousands in damage because repairs are not done properly in first place .

Then there are those who openly condone the work like retired firefighters , engineers etc. who sit there on church board's and tell them everything is Ok when they know dam well it is not

How any professional can sit there and do such a thing is unconscionable .

The worst part to this is when experts like my self try to work with churches and correct things and the boards sit  there and ignore you there own people know more than we do thats when I say thank you but  I am no longer interested in doing any more work for your church and I walk away

There is no sense arguing with closed minds and I just hope the lord protects these people while they are in church.

Yes unfortunately some of the biggest loss of lives has been in church fires one of the biggest in a church in South Africa  with a burlap ceiling .

A poorly designed Dry Pipe Sprinkler System Assembly leads to problems when installed In a new Church by less than reputable sprinkler company.

Victaulic is a Sprinkler company that has been in business for many years there are thousands of there systems in use all over the country. But recently I question their quality after problems with an install  of a new dry system with self resetting  valve at  a  church in Butler County. Came up.

The church has both a wet pipe and a dry pipe system and ever since the dry pipe assembly was put in place  there have been constant problems with the low air pressure alarm going off.
 Some times every day some times not for a couple days . The janitor has had to respond to check building and the church has paid the sprinkler company  from Allegheny County which has a poor reputation  for its work
hundreds of dollars to find the problem which they then come back and say the problem is the air pressure monitor switch attached to alarm.

I disagree but decide to change it just to shut them up and disprove them and did I ever disprove them.

First problem we found is that water shut off valve to the dry system does not shut off properly so it popped the dry valve.  I change  pressure switches all time and the dry valves never pop so serious issue number 1#  bad valve install.

Problem 2# seems like every fitting on this assembly which came in was only finger tight  a bad thing this allows air leaks so we tightened several fittings while awaiting a Sprinkler Company I have used for 30+ years to arrive to reset the system  and also help solve what is going on with this air leak.

My Sprinkler tech arrives and starts looking over the system and rolls his eyes when he sees the poor installation that was done from copper pipe with Shark Bite pipe connection from compressor etc. and goes on to explain how his company switched to Tyco Sprinkler Products after having so many problems with these new self re-seating dry valves.
and the many redesigns that Victalic has had to do to them and how the whole unit comes in as one assembly and often times it comes in not properly tightened like we found this unit. When I asked about this unit on a sprinkler group on Facebook and other sprinkler fitters I know I got a lot of negative feedback on it .They tell me they have been dealing with issues with them and hopefully Victualic will resolve them as the company has always had an excellent reputation but with new technology always seems bugs need worked out and some times no matter how well you design something there is always something you miss or does not show up till years down the road.

He looks system over and after few minutes he finds what is causing the problem of all the calls for low pressure.

Seems unlike older dry valve systems where you must undo front cover and manually reset valve and which require 40 pounds of  air pressure to hold dry valve in place  that the self resetting valves only need 13 pounds  so  the problem is almost all air compressors come in set to 40 pounds from factory  too much so an additional air pressure valve is put in line to hold pressure at 25-29 pounds.

But instead of using a high quality brass regulating valve and setting it at 20-29 pounds the company that installed the regulating valve used a cheap plastic one and set it for 35 pounds of air  which this plastic valve can not properly handle  it will start bleeding off over time as pipes expand and contract which is exactly what we had going on  valve would seat then release then re-seat  with expansion and contraction of pipes  He dropped pressure to 29
pounds and it stopped leaking and we have not had a problem since. a simple valve adjustment was all that was needed to be done but since the original installing sprinkler company sent a flunky out who had no idea what he was doing and failed to fix the problem and charged church hundreds of dollars for repairs never needed all the church had was headaches . Needless to say the church has fired the original installers and sprinkler company I use will doing work from now on.

Follow Up : Power problems in Penn Hills apparently caused by failed 23,000 High Voltage cable cable

I wrote earlier this week about lights blinking and then hearing the loud buzzing noise from an electrical arc coming over the back hill from my place.
Well with some investigation I go to the bottom of things which was going on and causing the lights to blink etc. While driving along Cox Comb hill in Plum Boro I came across a burned thru 23.000 volt lead lined  transmission cable near the substation on Cox Comb .

The cables which are wrapped in lead sheathing and are carried in a bundle of 3 just above  the telephone  lines on poles and used to transfer power around structures and across bridges etc.
Duquesne Light is one of the few power company's in this area that uses this system .

What appears to have happened is at some point in the life of this cable that failed either it got rubbed against by other cable or bracket holding it etc.  and in same time was seeking to find ground thru the wooden pole and as cable started failing it would arc causing the power problems .It finally got to point where the arcing was strong enough to ground  and sustained enough for the cable to snap.
Since this cable has snapped there have been no further issues and power company did not even have the courtesy to call Penn Hills Emergency Management to say they found the problem after being contacted numerous times. Why these utility company's have to  act this way is beyond common sense. But they do

Years of failure to maintain the power grid in Penn Hills now catching up with Power Company who is playing catch up and its putting many in danger.

On the screen shot you see below you can see over 4 weeks there have been 9 recordable electrical incidents on my computers back up power supply unit . Now 1 of them is thunder storm related  which is normal to see the others are all because of power grid in this area not being properly maintained and there are many more that have happened which happened to fast for unit to record them . Although  the power company  has spent  considerable money here to bring in new power lines and upgrade substations and they have replaced some rows of poles and upgraded some main  lines that's only about 20% of the power lines in Penn Hills

That means most of the infrastructure in Penn hills is close to 60 years old  Now where not as bad as some areas where wiring has not been touched or upgraded since late 1930's where you can still find old square transformers  on the poles in some  of the other power company's  in the area

So now the problem happening in this area of Penn Hills which encompasses the Hulton road, Bessemer , Valemont Heights and Shannon Heights  is we are having for past few months where all of a sudden the power just blinks out for several seconds and comes back on or just goes down dim.
This is a very dangerous problem as it causes surges on power lines and can damage  electrical items in the home. Now I have installed a very good Surge protection system on my home including power back up for computers but this is still not enough to protect when you have these Quick spikes and especially low voltage brown outs,
which are going on and can mess with refrigerators and freezers and Air conditioners  as they cycle on and off and causes there overloads to trip which is going to be really interesting as everyone starts turning on there units. I already lost a window unit a few years back because of power fluctuations .
Now the power company is aware of the problem but so far does not seemed interested in finding out what is causing it.Because they will not discuss with local officials what they are doing to find the problem or if they are even working on it .
But I may have discovered part of what is going on. This morning while feeding the birds I was in the back yard and I heard a very loud Voltage Arc like when a transformer is going bad or wiring is breaking down ..It sounded like it was coming from around the Indian creek valley area and as loud as it sounded it means a very bad situation is going to happen at the worse time and the grid is going to go out as something is breaking down electrically, and hopefully some where  the power company can easily get to and fix and not in the wooded areas. Worse yet a very bad brush fire could develop or homes could be damaged by the surge. When things finally go to hell  and break down . Several thousand homes and business could be effected especially if this is a substation issue which is over on Coxcomb road  and in Jefferson heights and if they are  involved as some home owners now think thats  where problem is coming from. Of course the even bigger worry is the very large high voltage supply lines just installed in past couple years as they run in this same area when they where being installed one line failed and fell onto Frankstown Road because it was not properly attached.
 What ever is going on  the power company better get to the bottom of it and get it fixed before we have a major fire  and major damage in homes .
in this area and answer to officials what they are doing to resolve it.  Of course electrical issues are just one of the many major issues going on with infrastructure in this area there are gas and water lines all over this end of Pa. going on 100  Plus years old.  a recent newspaper article reported many  tens of millions of dollars need to be spent to upgrade lines as well.  Yes this area went thru a major depression and all company's got hurt but now many are back in the black and need to start playing catch up before we start having major issues.

A fire which took 3 Pittsburgh firefighters Lives and put a young man in jail for life now under review as it may not have been arson

t was a horrifying situation as 3 Firefighters perished in a February 1995 fire in Pittsburgh's Homewood /Brushton section. It was even more horrifying  when it was announced to be an Arson fire.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=799&dat=19950211&id=dGEzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZVIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2965,4991373&hl=en

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19970207&id=w_wyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0W8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4594,4358291&hl=en

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19950215&id=mPNSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=q4IDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4741,8312786&hl=en

Ultimately a young man  17 yr old  Gregory brown Jr.would be accused and sentenced to life in prison and his mom Darlene Buckner  convicted of insurance fraud.

But from the very start of this case things have not been adding up
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2519&dat=19970219&id=oyZdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yloNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1716,2381438&hl=en

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19960507&id=_tZRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=w28DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4213,5672318&hl=en

Because of these discrepancy   The Innocence Project became involved because they believe justice was not done in this case.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/appeals-court-upholds-new-trial-firefighters-1995-/nkb9s/

While the Fire Investigator hired by the insurance agency that covered the home felt it was possibly related to a defective natural gas pipe line  The City and Federal Investigators  felt it was Arson and pursued it as a criminal case.

A new trail was ruled and then immediately   appealed by Allegheny County DA which the appeal has been overturned and unless further appealed will proceed .

One big thing this new trial will be hinged on is the Fire Investigation Techniques used at the time. 
as it has been revealed in Arson Case Re-Trial after Re-Trial how the Investigation techniques used 
even today are flawed  often called junk Science and even with modern science are being challenged  and there are many questions as to how the case was handled and the fact paid informants where used and not revealed .You better believe the DA is worried the young man will be found innocent  If this young man did set the fire and killed the 3 firefighters I say Fry the SOB  and let him rot in prison . If not then right a wrong and set him free. This trial is going to open up many old wounds but they can not properly heal if justice was not properly done. Lets settle it and all the rumors which have been swirling around the fire community  ever since the fire happene

The Carter 3 way wiring system beware of this dangerous wiring when doing electrical work in old homes with Knob & Tube wiring

Got a call the other day from Maintenance Director at one of the Group Homes I take care of for a Institutional customer.Seems they can not get a 3 way dimmer to work in the hall way at the home so they can dim light at night while kids are sleeping.
They installed 2 both worked then stopped and 2nd one sparked and blew up. 

First thing is I check is it the correct dimmer for the correct light.. Yes it is it is rated for both LED and Fluorescent  fixtures. OK has he  wired it correctly common wire to common wire travelers to travelers. yes he has.

So whats going on ?

Well after looking at age of the home early 1900's  and the old knob and tube wiring

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knob-and-tube_wiring

  

 I suspect a carter wiring 3 way set up.

Unlike a conventional 3 way set up in picture below where all switching is done with just the hot conductor .

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

The carter system allows the switching of both the hot and neutral conductors 

Because the hot and neutral switch back and forth a 3 way dimmer can not be used  The Carter Circuit was banned in 1923 but I have found them in homes wired all the way up into the 50's and using romex wiring. Because  handymen and totally ignorant so called expert electricians refused to stop using it.

What makes this circuit deadly is the fact you can hook in a new switch improperly on a carter circuit and cause an dead short which is what happened at the group home.

How can you tell if you have a carter circuit in a home it takes a professional electrician familiar with old homes  to be able to determine this  by means of using a meter or induction probe and flipping of the switch and measuring to determine .

Are carter circuits safe to use in a home. Yes they are as long as they are not disturbed and if switches are replaced they are done so properly and due care must be taken to make sure wires are on proper terminal or you will have a short circuit .

 Due care must be taken when changing light bulbs
on a carter circuit as the shell of the light fixture socket can be hot with power even thou switch is off.

If a bulb breaks off  in socket and its an older home only safe way to replace it is to completely turn off power to the circuit.  or entire house if needed.
 and then removing the broken bulb or you risk getting shocked.

Itsy bitzy Spider was a real pain in the ass when they decided to make a home in a smoke detector

It started with a false fire alarm which took several days to track down and find  seems the fire alarm at a institutional customers group home was just going off randomly to make matters worse it was a conventional system which meant looking for the activated device or red LED lighted solid on the smoke detector None of which could be determined.

 The system had some older ESL smokes on it which I immediately replaced  as they are known trouble makers and have been known to go into alarm with out there LED locking in and the system settled down for the night till next morning more false alarms  thats when I found corrosion in the bathroom heat detectors and replaced them and again system seemed to settle . It was fine for 12 hours then another false  I suspected the pull station on the zone  which had been bumped numerous times and I have seen them cause random false alarms as no LED was lighted on any of the I3 System Sensor smokes  or older System sensor smokes which very rarely ever cause a problem. But thats when it really get weird. I take off the pull station and loop still shows it is being supervised despite fact the resistor is missing  as its attached to the pull station .This meant there was a 2nd resistor which was screwing with system that was improperly added to loop.  So I start looking for it and start taking every device apart thats when I find the trouble maker.

One of the smokes in bedroom 2 # has a spider web in it partially blocking the sensor and causing the false. But why was the LED not locking in? to make matters even stranger once I pulled the smoke out of the loop it was now showing a supervision problem no resistor? Hey wait a minute the I3 where never built with an in line resistor yet this unit appears to have one put it back in line its supervised.
Very strange apparently the spider managed to short out something in the smoke causing this issue.
I have contacted System Sensor and sending them the unit to inspect as they are just as curious as I am as to how this spider caused the problem when there are screens etc to prevent this kind of issue.
But thankfully the problem has been found and if it ever happens again I will know to better check all smokes on line when a false occurs and no LED is locked in .