Verizon vs. the Needham Fire Department

netbuzz writes "At issue is whether — or not — there was a minor fire in a house on Pine Grove Street in Needham, Mass., caused by a Verizon employee drilling through an electrical main. Everyone agrees that whatever happened — or didn't happen — was indeed the fault of the Verizon employee; it's "fire or no fire" that is at issue. Verizon says no fire, not even smoke. The Needham Fire Department begs to differ. New eye-witness reports are emerging ... and it's not looking good for Verizon."

Blame

[DCBoland]

Whilst of course it would be best practice to check for a mains line before drilling, it's most likely the electrical wire was somewhere it shouldn't have been. Here in the UK such wires should be in line with light switches etc and never go diagonally etc. Id imagine/hope similar rules apply in here...

Blogspam

[Megaweapon]

The submitter ("When not blogging, I am a Network World news editor and write the 'Net Buzz column.") [networkworld.com] is just linking to his crappy blog, which is just whoring his employer [networkworld.com].

Where there's smoke ...

[Skapare]

There are a couple reports of smoke, one pinpointing the electric meter. And a neighbor reported electric power flickering. Both of these suggest to me there was an arcing fault in the electric service feed between the meter and the first main breaker/fuse in the electrical panel for the house.

These points along the electrical service wiring are critical because there is no overcurrent protection suitable to shut them off. The amount of current such an arc cause draw will be substantial, but it won't always be more than all the homes sharing the same transformer could draw combined at peak loads. So that fuse leading into the transformer isn't likely to stop it. It is intended to stop a short on the high voltage windings inside the transformer. These fuses are intentionally set high to avoid false outages.

Today's electrical codes require substantial physical protection of the wiring between the meter and main panel, such as enclosure in conduit for short distances, and more significant protection for longer distances. But lots of older wiring doesn't have this protection.

Telephone and cable service also needs to come in next to the power for proper grounding purposes.

My biggest concern is the technician doing the installation not having the proper training to work around the power connections.

Re:Stupid semantics argument

[Ellis D. Tripp]

[quote]If there were just some sparks with the protection on the electrical circuits preventing a fire as designed then there's no reason to change the ordinances.[/quote]

If this was actually the building's "electric main" (properly called the service conductors), there isn't really any overcurrent protection on them. The service drop and wiring between the meter and the main breaker/disconnect are UNFUSED, with the only protection being a fuse on the primary side of the transformer out on the utility pole, which generally serves 5-6 homes, if not the entire block.

In the event of a short circuit on these wires, fault currents of thousands of amperes are potentially available. The end of the drill bit used by that Verizon tech most likely turned into a ball of plasma when it hit those wires. The guy is lucky that the accident happened inside a wall cavity, or he likely would have gotten a faceful of metal vapor and some nasty burns.

Accidents involving arc-flash burns like this actually kill more electricians than outright electrocution does.

Re:Stupid semantics argument

[SmurfButcher Bob]

Pretty much agreed. The TFA's inquiry about "the fire at xxx", along with his remark that "I'd have been corrected by the chief if there was no fire"... Not correct.

For us, in the context of history, a "fire" and a "call" are the same thing. "How was that fire last night?" "Oh, it was just a buggy detector." Within that parlance, "fire" is synonymous with "call" - so TFA's assertion that the chief "not correcting him" is crap.

The chief's report of an actual fire will generally depend on criteria that varies per state (and possibly county). But as a matter of course, we don't pull sheetrock without cause - and the responding crew clearly felt the need to do so, and I take that as a good indicator. The only question is what they found in the void space - did some cobwebs cook off and go out, did some insulation smolder and go out of its own accord, or did they actually have to flow some water. Note that the chief will tend to report any sign of charring as a fire, even if it's cold when we get there. "Did something burn?" "Yes, clearly." "Did it sustain?" "No. It was electrical, and it went out when the breaker tripped." While the event may have been a simple "arc and spark", it still constitutes an electrical fire in every NFPA and IFSTA book ever written. Quite the dilemma.

Slightly OT, but you'll enjoy this - "It takes a few minutes for the fire truck to arrive. If there were flames when they got there, they'd be substantial enough that..."
There's an old saying. If you can't find the house, just wait. Sooner or later, it'll vent :)

Happens way too many times

[future assassin]

About 5 years ago some construction crew cut a fiber line downtown Vancouver which cut off Harbour Center or at least quie a few of the ISP's/Webhost.

About a year earlier in Burnaby a construction crew hit a gas line about 100 feet away from our offices. They closed off the whole block till BC arrived and fixed the hole.

Re:Today this should NOT BE HAPPENING

[Anonymous Coward]

And how do you account for the utilities installed many years ago that were never documented? Or the plans show it going from one building to another, but due to construction issues, was rerouted? Also, a lot of utilities are abandoned but never removed, just capped at each end since its easier and doesn't cost a lot and left in place. You could believe there is only the abandoned line there and not look for other stuff and still cause problems. This is a very complicated thing.
 

In fact such a system should be federally mandated as mandatory. I hear way too many stories like this.

Can you even imagine how many terameters of utilities and other stuff is underground? I worked for a utility contractor for a couple summers during highschool and for things like watermain, if the pipe is within a couple of feet, it is considered good enough for almost all residential settings. Being off by a couple inches, little alone a couple feet is the difference between conflict and problems and nothing happening. I just don't see people paying to locate all of these and find them again. It is probably more cost effective to not care and just fix it when a problem occurs. Its another thing where throwing money at the problem may make things worse due to the bureaucracy involved and would certainly cost major amounts of money to get marginal benefits.

This is NOT about UNDERGROUND Utilities

[jfuredy]

There is nothing in this story about underground utilities. This is about an installation technician drilling a hole into the wall of a house and hitting a wire.

There REALLY is no excuse for this since an AC finder tool is relatively inexpensive and readily available.