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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."
Believe it or not, this happens more often than you might think. The only difference is: this one got national attention somehow.
The game.
Verizon burns customer.
Verizon technical workers are careless and unqualified?
I'm shocked!
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.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
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."
Interviewer: Sir, what was the reason for leaving your last job?
Employee: Actually, I started a fire in a customers house and denied it ever happend, even though there were eyewitnesses. Needless to say the incident received national attention and my company spent a lot of money in litigation.
Interviewer: We'll let you know.
In a world of acronyms, the words are the real victims.
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.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
/Verizon waves hand This is the not the fire you are looking for...
Employee: Sounds great. I look forward to working with you Captain Hazelwood.
I hope, when they die, cartoon characters have to answer for their sins.
Other rejected phrases:
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
Our customers are really fired up about Triple Play!
"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.
Verizon guy shorts the home's electric main, it sparks like hell inside the wall leaving burns and smoke comes out of the meter where the fuse blew.
Argument that its a fire: things got burned.
Argument that its not a fire: apparantly no secondary ignition. The burns were evidently from the sparks and the fuse melting.
As for the fireman saying, "if there's flames..." It take a few minutes for the fire truck to arrive. If there were flames when they got there, they'd be substantial enough that there wouldn't be any argument over whether there was a fire. His claim of the existance of flames can't be based on primary observation by either him or his staff.
I can see why Verizon cares about the difference. If there was a fire, that's a compelling reason for the county to change the ordinances governing the certifications their installers are required to hold. 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.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
The submitter ("When not blogging, I am a Network World news editor and write the 'Net Buzz column.") is just linking to his crappy blog, which is just whoring his employer.
I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
It was only a matter of time before one of these morons drilled through an electrical line.
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.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
There is no doubt when something is on fire. We deal with all kinds of incidents. We're a dirt poor volunteer department and even we have thermal cameras that will distinguish the merely hot from something on fire, even through walls. We also have infrared surface thermometers so we know where to cut the hole in the wall.
I've also seen it happen that something was smoking hot until the access hole is cut and when the air gets in it bursts into flame. Particularly in walls and behind panels. I doubt the Verizon techs were close enough to see when the fire department got there.
The witnesses said they saw white, puffy smoke. That usually means the fire is out. It also indicates there was a fire to put out.
Just amazes me that the truth is so hard for so many organizations these days.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
If at first you don't succeed, call it version 1.0.
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?
You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
All of this could have been avoided if he had only drilled .002 meters to the left.
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.
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.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.
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.
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
SCANDAL ON SLASHDOT
An article published on a popular Internet news site Slashdot has been revealed to contain inaccuracies. This shocking revelation, centered around an article concerning a possible attempt at arson committed by Verizon, Inc's employee against the company's customer in Needham, Mass., is only the latest scandal surrounding Slashdot. While the police did not give any details at this time, an attempt to indicate the local fire department of lying is rumored to be at the heart of the matter.
A Slashdot reader, identifying himself as a veteran of the Mission to Mars, expressed his outrage of the incident, but felt confident that the mental skills honed at that mission would help him cope through these traumatic times.
"I feel like a piece of my life was just wasted reading the article.", said one reader. Others have engaged in anti-social behavior; one caught in the act said: "Just had to do something to make reading this article worth my time."
-Ultranova, reporting live from Slashdot.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.