A Firefighters Novelty Item which could become a real concern to Firefighters and Public Safety

So I am shopping at my favorite discount store 380 discount and I see these really neat Firefighters novelty and bought a couple dozen of them  very cheap to give to customers and firefighting friends

Its a Model Pull Station that when you pull it is actually a light.

 And as you can see its a realistic looking pull station with a really bright flash light pretty cool even gave one to local Fire marshal who said thats really neat he was going to give it to his daughter and then it hits him . Maybe this is not such a cool thing to give to a kid ? Because whats to stop a young kid from thinking all pull stations which look like this Edwards Pull station light up and there are plenty of them out there . Yes he has a very valid concern. A young child could very easily associate the 2 and you have a bunch of false alarms being created.  So while it is a neat novelty item keep in mind how it is gong to be used in many cases its just going to end up in a firefighters collection  but it could end up in a young  child's hands and if it does lets hope the parent teaches the child the difference between this toy and real deal.

AT&T Has failed to correct its 4G issues thats why I will be going Verizon from hear on out. Plus a new tech issues micro Cells causing AT&T Issues

Yes I wrote few months back about AT&T  having issues after 4G -GSM roll out causing spotty coverage and I have had no choice but to start switching my customers cellular communicators over to Verizon CDMA service .

The problems are very clear as you increase speed you need more towers and no towers where added in my area for 4G
also AT&T has internet powered phone boosters known as Micro Cells they act like miniature cell towers you hook to internet to provide coverage in spotty areas and they are playing havoc with cell communicators.

https://www.att.com/att/microcell/

 

I have spent many days just going around installing boosting antennas and moving and relocating units to try and get coverage to end up having to switch to Verizon CDMA  I am done with AT&T and I am not the only one I hear nothing but complaints from friends and customers who have AT&T phone I have a At&t pay as you go phone use to get perfect signal at my home and now poor signal and tower is 1 mile from my home. I am done with you AT&T you rolled out that new service knowing you could not support it and you want to go to 5G which will make things even worse .

A useful tool for Easy Pass users In Pa no longer allowed by feds due to Stupid Drivers

Yes once again the Pa Turnpike has been told to eliminate a useful feature for easy pass users such as myself which ans when your easy pass is not working or your balance is low

They had set up a simple traffic light when you pulled thru green your pass was working and there are funds in your account to pay the tool if yellow came on you have a low balance and red meant pass not working.

however a couple accidents resulted when fools who do not have an easy pass or do not read instructions stopped and hit brakes instead of driving thru. So now all the traffic lights are being pulled as we once again reward bad behavior by drivers and Pittsburgh ranks number 1# when it comes to bad drivers. So once again a defensive educated driver like myself pays for fools and idiots bad behavior.
So now I have to go online to check balance and make sure pass is working properly so i do not get
overcharged.
Thank You again Federal highway administration for rewarding bad driving .

What are these crazy looking multi valve outlets you see on the outside of some buildings ? They are for Fire Pump Testing

You have probably walked by them and not noticed them but other times you may have with any where from 2 to 6 or more  little individual hand valves on them depending on the size and volume pump puts out

They serve an important purpose they are used to test the Fire Pump which boosts the pressure to sprinkler system which protect buildings. Since water can not be run thru the sprinkler piping while testing the pump this bypass valve arrangement is installed  and hoses attached to allow the water to flow towards a street drain.  the valves can be individually open and closed to allow pressure against the pump while being tested  . Got to see a test at a large storage facility once and was very impressive .


Check out this Youtube Video of a test being performed by a contractor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXeHHSaRDhY

So now you know what those weird valves are for. 

Unyielding and Strict Code Interpretations often leads to them being violated and major code issues being entirely missed.

Yes unfortunately I run across Inspectors who are so attentive to absolute strict compliance of code they often end up causing code issues and often times because they are so attentive they miss major issues .

Take the case of a recent wedding venue I attended that just opened in an upscale community .
This particular inspector insists pull stations no more then 5 ft NFPA 72mandates how ever not taking into consideration the buildings design and ADA rules yes you guessed it every one of them are blocked .

As you can see in the picture the chair blocks the pull station . Had the inspector let the pull station be put on the side wall near corridor it would be free and clear and easy to operate but thats too far. But remember the inspector has the right to allow local judgement especially when it comes to something like this . Its called common sense and these inspectors do not have it and will not use it.

In the mean time while they where doing all of the inspections and their obsessions with tape measures  to make sure everything is correct they totally missed the fact the raised platform where participants sit is of same material's main floor and has no safety edge to warn you are stepping down the result the night of wedding a 80 yr old women participant fell and severely bruised both knee's which more than likely is not going to end well.

Never fails I see this all the time over obsessed with compliance instead of using common sense to avoid issues  it is just a matter of time this community is going to be hit with a major lawsuit because its inspectors have failed to protect the community by missing and or contributing to a major code violation where there is a loss of life. The clock is ticking .

UL and NFPA mandate not allowing Ground Fault Function to be bypassed on Fire Panels is putting lives in danger because other faults get missed

Yes the idiots at UL and NFPA in their quest to build a better fire panel have actually caused panels to be less safe. How?

By not allowing a problem that frequently happens on fire panels a Ground fault.

A ground fault indicates that a wire on one of the circuits has been pinched and is touching earth ground some where in the system  typically occurs as buildings get older and expand and contract and while  a ground fault can interfere with a panels operation its a very rare occurrence. I have never seen one do it in 40 years of fire work on all kind of systems big small new and old  and all kinds of buildings .

In older panels you could temporarily bypass the feature so you could find it which some times takes months to find especially when its a floater where wire only touches on hot days when the building is expanding . Bypassing the feature allowed time to find it and fix it with out the trouble sounder constantly coming on and driving people nuts  .

tape placed over sounder to muffle it 

But no the Morons at NFPA and UL decided alarm techs can not be trusted they will find and fix this ground fault so not more bypassing.

The result the trouble sounder coming on several times a day to point individuals damage or otherwise make the piezo unit which makes the sound be muffled.

So now especially if you have a local only system which does not report  which there are many of these type of systems  or  a system which reports just a simple trouble  to central station which there are many out there ,  when a real dangerous problem comes in like a circuit to the horn strobes is broken or circuit to smoke detectors is broken it gets ignored everyone thinks its the dam ground fault.  and then when firefighters need to use the remote stations they can not they have been damaged.

BOTTOM LINE LIVES ARE PUT AT RISK BECAUSE OF THIS UL- NFPA MANDATE

Because UL and NFPA never ever thinks a problem or issue thru before issuing a mandate .
and then has to keep changing rules and codes and panel features.

Yes that time bomb clock keeps ticking and guarantee some where a building is having a ground fault the trouble sounders have been broken or cut off and their is a serious issue with panel no one knows is going on and there will be a fire and system will fail to operate .

Thank You UL ad NFPA for once again putting lives in danger

Like I always say  NFPA really stands for Not For Practical Application 

A Very dangerous designed safety rail on Sissor Lifts how was this even allowed on the market

In 40 plus years of working on various lifts and hoists I encountered one of the most dangerous designs I have ever seen on a Optimum 1930 Sissor lift made by Haulotte
These are typically rented thru home improvement stores which is why OSHA probably has not gotten them off the market.

The units have a solid steel bar which goes across where other lifts use a piece of chain it sildes up and down on rollers and can get stuck in up posistion and then thats when its dangerous when I went to get on lift not realizing flimsy way the bar was staying up it came down and struck me on the head.

Bar Lowered

roller mechanisim

As you can see bar is pushed up and down but can easily catch and the fall  in picture below

Bar now in up stuck position bump it it comes down hard .

To make matters worse because this bar is such a pain in the ass to get under and on to lift it is often tied up with tape or zip ties and now the safety is bypassed. Who ever cam up with such a poorly designed safety feature need fired and not allowed to design another piece of equipment.
I contacted manufacture but never got a reply back which is typical . when some one gets seriously hurt and they get sued then maybe they will recall these units and put safety chain on them. 

I will be notifying CPSC as this is rented to consumers

You can not make a 4 wire smoke detector work on a 2 wire Fire Alarm loop but that did not stop this installer from doing it and leaving half an apartment building with out proper fire protection for over 30 years

In 1984 the Pa. fire and Panic Act was passed and it required the vast majority of apartment buildings to install Fire Alarm Systems unless you where in a community using the BOCA Code  but some followed both like Monroeville  a very good ideal that unfortunately was never properly enforced by the state  and has lead to hundreds if not thousands of inadequate and improper systems to be installed in apartment buildings all over the state.

One such building I encountered in the  south Hills of Pittsburgh is just such a case the system was installed but never inspected and passed by any fire official and up until it was purchased by my customer this past year and I rebuilt it never properly worked in fact half of the smoke alarms and pull stations never functioned since the day they where installed  .

So how could something like this happen ? Unfortunately it still goes on to this very day.
Back then community's who did not have a local Fire Marshal or Official to inspect left it up to the state to do it. In too many cases the state approved the drawings and got the required completion paper work the system was installed but never verified the systems or inspected them.
This lead to a host of violations from non approved burglar alarm equipment being used to pull stations mounted at 6 ft .

In this 22 unit 3 story apartment they installed an ESL 1500 Fire Panel but then never field installed the resistors which supervise the wiring on the end of the circuits this resulted in the south end of stair tower with smokes and pull stations to fail to operate when a wire fell off a heat detector in basement
so it never worked for god only knows how long .
Then to make matter worse they tried installing 4 wire detectors on 2 wire loops.
yes it can be done but you must install 2 extra wires to provide power to the units they did not which means they never worked. Despite how they tried to make the wiring work.

By jumping 2 wires over to power side of detector sorry that does not work so these detectors never worked.
Now to make matters worse this system up till 96 was regularly inspected by a big famous 3 initial fire company whose inspectors passed it every year and never found any of these issues in effect they where committing fraud signing the reports and ripping off the building owner and more importantly
they where putting lives at risk all for the almighty buck. Of course so much time has passed the people who installed the system are long out of business and dead and the people inspecting it are probably long gone and probably dead as well so who you going to go after.

I rebuilt the system installing a new Silent Knight 5208 Panel  all new system sensor  smoke and heat detectors plus carbon monoxide detectors and supervising as much of the wiring as I could and installed a Cellular Sole Path Communicator to notify fire dept and this time had it inspected by the towns new chief who is now going back over and rechecking all the property's in the town for proper compliance .
Good for Him and he has implemented The Compliance Engine to help keep track of things. Of course your still going to have the raggers and taggers but all the tracking helps to catch them. 
But finnaly the good people of this community will have proper fire protection.