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."

Comments

wow

[thatskinnyguy]

Believe it or not, this happens more often than you might think. The only difference is: this one got national attention somehow.

Headline?

[MyLongNickName]

Is this even worth being on Slashdot? Employee screws up, causes problems. International news?

Crap, several of our T1 lines were cut last week by a government employee who "forgot" to get a map of buried cables before digging. It cost us a heck of a lot more than a house (OT and moving of computer equipment from one location to another)... and that is just our business. I am not even sure it got local coverage.

Is this geek newsworthy?

[BillGatesLoveChild]

Maybe all the Die Hard 4.0 previews have left be numb, but this story is difficult for me to get excited about.

What's next? "Verizon Employee caught stealing Stationary: Box of blue pens missing. Only cap left."

What? Why is this on the front page?

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

I thought this would not even merit a place in the Firehose. Come on guys, if you keep posting such rubbish, I have to log out and do some work.

Let me be the 15th to say..

[tgd]

"Who cares?"

I mean seriously, this didn't even make the local news.

Anyone want to post a front-page story about the plastic Dasani water bottle I found in my front lawn this morning? I feel it was tossed there from a passing car. My girlfriend thinks it was blown there from across the street. I told her people litter all the time on the street in front of our house, so they probably just tossed it on the front lawn.

FWIW, there was no fire in my house when Verizon installed my ONT. Me, Verizon and the town all agree on that.

Re:Blogspam

[triplecoil]

What's your point? Story submissions have to come from somewhere. He thought the Slashdot crowd would be interested in his take on it, and so did CmdrTaco, apparently. The source of the submission, regardless of what you think of the story in and of itself, should have no impact on whether or not readers should deem it valid.

Re:I'm Sorry

[ePhil_One]

Keep in mind words aren't as precise as we'd like them to be, over the years they take on multiple meanings. Witness the following permutayions on a classic Military phrase, which you think would be very well defined:

One reason the Armed Services have trouble operating jointly is that they have very different meanings for the same terms.

The Joint Chiefs once told the Navy to "secure a building," to which they responded by turning off the lights and locking the doors.

The Joint Chiefs then instructed Army personnel to "secure the building," and they occupied the building so no one could enter.

Upon receiving the exact same order, the Marines assaulted the building, captured it, and set up defenses with suppressive fire & amphibious assault vehicles, established reconnaissance and communications channels, and prepared for close hand-to-hand combat if the situation arose.

But the Air Force, on the other hand, acted most swiftly on the command, and took out a three-year lease with an option to buy.

So its quite possible that both sides are telling the truth, there was no fire & there was a fire. If I asked you if there had ever been a fire in your house, you might truthfully tell me no, even though you had a gas stove, lit matches and candles, and maybe even flambe's some meals. Would that make you a liar?

Re:I'm Sorry

[COMON$]

You are precisely right here. I have read over these paragraphs trying to find 1 of 2 things:

1. That the fire chief ever said there was a fire...

Today, however -- out of an overabundance of caution (always a good thing) - the Needham Times reporter doubled back to DeIulio and asked if there was any truth to Verizon's contention that there was no fire at the fire on Pine Grove Street. I had contacted the paper earlier and asked that they let me know if any correction proved necessary.

It has not.

"If there's flames, there's fire," Deputy Fire Chief DeIulio said to reporter Ryan, demonstrating once again that public relations professionals need approximately 20 words to every one required by regular people to tell their side of any story.

No argument is being made between the two individuals, no suit no nothing. Verison took responsibility for the issue, paying for the whole thing. Even if there were a contention on the state of the accident whether there be a wire cut and sparks flew or if there was an actual electrical fire, it wouldn't change the outcome. No one is covering up anything, no one, but the author is making an issue of this. Just one of the millions of accidents that happen due to poor planning each year.

Should I write a blog on how I had two fiber connections dug up in 1 week here? No, the companies took responsibility and fixed the problem, case closed.

2. Why on earth this is even a story, I live in smallville midwest and this wouldn't even make it as a paragraph in the Living section. This has the feeling of a 15 year old kid scrambling to find a story for a paper before deadline in an hour. Lot of speculation and lack of actual comments in context. I feel like a piece of my life was just wasted reading the article. Similar to how I made it through Mission to Mars, I kept hoping there would be a point to the movie but alas just a section of my life I will never get back. Kind of like how you feel now for reading my post. Just had to do something to make reading this article worth my time.