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

News at 11

[xmarkd400x]

Verizon burns customer.

On-Site Support

[Renaissance 2K]

Verizon technical workers are careless and unqualified?

I'm shocked!

Re:On-Site Support

[Anonymous Coward]

So was he.

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.

Re:Headline?

[MichaelSmith]

who "forgot" to get a map of buried cables before digging.

In my experience the easiest way to find the owner of a cable is to break it and wait for the complaints.

Re:Headline?

[andrewbaldwin]

This sounds like a joke but I assure you it is true....

Some years ago the water/sewage pipes were being repaired just outside the office where I worked. The trench was gradually making its progress up the road, across the pavement [sidewalk] and was closing in on the visitors' car park in front of the building.

The facilities manager walked out to meet them and spoke to the foreman.

"Please be careful and watch out when you're digging here, there are some comms cables running across the car park here, they are about 1 metre down"

"Don't you worry about that sir... we'll be digging much deeper than that" came the reply.

The really sad part was that he couldn't see why we were laughing.

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.

Had to say it

[outriding9800]

/Verizon waves hand This is the not the fire you are looking for...

Re:wow

[AskChopper]

Yep.. Happens a lot. Last year I was with a team trying to find a water pipe that was leaking when their JCB dug right through an electrical cable in the water filled hole. The resulting fireball singed the eyebrows off one of the guys who was leaning over the hole to look in. It left a whole Business Park without electricity. The employees loved it because they all got sent home. The companies themselves were less than pleased though!

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.

Blogspam

[Megaweapon]

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.

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.

DirecTV Story

[Se7enLC]

When I wanted to add a cable drop in my room, I opted to pay DirecTV to do the installation, thinking that they would bring a giant ladder and check to make sure that they ran the cable in an appropriate place. Things that I shouldn't be doing in a rental apartment. Oh no. Here's what they did:

• They took my personally-owned coax cable and cut the end off it. (I had a 50ft cable running to the jack in the other room as a temporary solution).
  
• Drilled a hole through the wall going outside without even pausing to consider what was in that wall
  
• Dropped the cable down the side of the house
  
• Realized it wasn't long enough and put a coupler on it and added another cable (don't they have SPOOLS OF CABLE on their truck?)
  
• Drilled a hole through the frame of the basement window
  
• Fed the cable haphazardly in to connect to the box.
  
• Attached the cable to the wall by putting a staple THROUGH the cable, trying to take it back out of the cable, giving up, cutting off the excess, and using another staple to go around it.
  

It was only a matter of time before one of these morons drilled through an electrical line.

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:wow

[plague3106]

What, companies send their employees home if the building loses power? Hmm..

Re:wow

[matt328]

Yes it does. Awhile back I had cable internet installed at my parent's house. When I asked the tech how he planned on getting the actual cable into the house, he pulled out a drill with an 18 inch long, 7/16" bit, told me to stand back, and just haphazardly poked a hole right through the siding, insulation, drywall, everything.

I'm sure if the guy would have hit a wire, electrocuted himself and fell off the ladder you would have read about him suing me.

Tim Allen

[sjaguar]

The first thing I thought of is that drilling through the main would be something Tim Allen would do on "Home Improvement". It reminded me of a quote of his:

Electricity can be dangerous. My nephew tried to stick a penny into a plug. Whoever said a penny doesn't go far didn't see him shoot across that floor. I told him he was grounded.

Re:Is this geek newsworthy?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're going to steal, doing it stationary is a good way to get caught

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:wow

[Fred_A]

I'm sure if the guy would have hit a wire, electrocuted himself and fell off the ladder you would have read about him suing me. Not if you're quick and handy with a shovel he wouldn't (wink wink)

Re:I'm Sorry

[Richy_T]

#include <stdio.h>

int main(){
printf ("%s", "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?");
}