Smart Meter Fires
While absolutely no one we know can say for sure if smart meters played a role in the Marshall Fire just east of Boulder, CO on Dec. 30, 2021, and because in general, smart meters are well known to cause fires, there were plenty of people who expressed (what we believe are) justifiably “inquisitive” thoughts and questions on this topic. To say these thoughts and questions were “floating in the ethers” among certain individuals would be an understatement!
Whether there was likely any connection between the smart meters in the fire area to any element of (contribution to) causation of the fires was a question we asked someone we know, not too long after the actual event, someone who has been working on wireless issues, telecom fires, EMF harms, and who is a fire and utility consultant working as a team member on such issues for a highly regarded law firm. This is a person with a lot of expertise who replied that, without evidence, there is no real way of proving a smart meter connection one way or another. What we learned from both this expert, and the expertise of others who’ve dealt with this topic of smart meter fires is, when there is the possibility that a house fire may have been ignited by a fault in or in close proximity to a smart meter, the utility company is more than eager to rapidly secrete away any possible evidence of causation, even if it violates the law. In other words, the utility swoops in rapidly to retrieve any potential evidence of a smart (or digital opt-out) meter caused blaze. They take the meter.
Hence, even if there were a smart meter piece of the causation puzzle, no evidence means….no evidence. So there is little that can be further postulated about the Marshall fire with no evidence. However, in other cases and places there has been abundant evidence of causation of fires by smart meters, including eye witnesses and accounts.
Below is a picture that is an example of what the initial aftermath of a smart meter (engendered) fire would look like. The photo was taken at 924 Pioneer Street near CSU in Ft. Collins, CO, circa Thanksgiving, 2017 by a then resident of that city. His wife, Virginia Farver of Ft. Collins, however (who is also an extremely interested party in the topic of the necessity of safe technology) provided the photos to us. Her husband was on the scene early on, got the picture, and here is what Virginia has to say about this event:
“The first thing my husband noticed was that the meter was missing off of the home before investigators arrived. The fire went up/down and to the side and burned the fence. The Fort Collins Coloradoan (bogus paper) stated that they ‘Didn’t find the cause’ or never reported the cause. They just wait until people forget and then never speak of the causes. A CLEAR sign is that this meter is missing because it is obvious it started right at the smart meter.”
Summary of Evidence on Smart Meter Fires from emfsafetynetwork.org
“In California and around world, smart meters have been linked to fires,
explosions, and damaged appliances. For every fire started at the meter, in
an appliance, or on wiring, smart meter causality should be suspected.”
White Paper by Susan Foster, Medical Writer and Honorary Firefighter with the San Diego Fire Dept.
PROTECTING LA COUNTY White Paper 11-15-22 (3)
New Report on How Smart Meter Fires May Be Engendered
Smart Meter Fires – Brown, Armstrong, Babrauskas
SMART METER FIRES – Burning Meters, Burning Questions – good video from 2016
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An excerpt from Children’s Health Defense website’s FAQs on telecom/electrical fires, highly relevant to the conversation going on around smart meter fires…..
“What are the fire risks associated with cell towers and other telecom equipment?”
Cell tower fires are infrequent but devastating when they do occur. According to Susan Foster, writer and Honorary Firefighter with the San Diego Fire Department, “Electrical fires cannot be fought through conventional means until the power has been cut. Firefighters or anyone else trying to put water on an energized cell tower fire will be electrocuted.” According to Tony P. Simmons, PE, an electrical engineer who is a subject matter expert on electrical safety in California and Nevada, “Many people are not aware that electrical equipment, including all cell towers and 5G small cell sites, pose a fire threat that must be mitigated by a recognized electrical fire safety expert. Every electrical device is going to fail at some point. The goal is to ensure that failures do not imperil life, health and property.”
“Imagine this scenario,” Foster explains. “A cell tower catches on fire with winds gusting at 50 miles an hour. This fire is going to spread until the utility cuts the power and that can take between 10 minutes and one hour.” Foster cautions cities to establish residential setbacks from all wireless installations so that people have time to escape in the event of fire.
Foster adds additional insight, “Most cities and counties are unaware that they are authorized to regulate the design of cell sites to protect the public from electrical hazards. Cellular installations must be viewed for what they are — electrical installations.”
“Frankly, the promise of 5G is hype and the fire danger of having cell towers close to our homes, schools, and places of business can have devastating consequences,” explains Foster. “Electric fire safety experts were not involved in the 5G mandate, telecom executives and attorneys were. They had different priorities. I want my family to be safe. Telecom wants their market share to increase.”
Western U.S. is locked in the most prolonged drought of our lifetime, and whether a region is facing drought or flooding, telecommunications equipment fires are real, they are extremely dangerous, and they are greatly underestimated for the risks they pose. Compounding the threat is the unprecedented proliferation of 5G cell towers. Four fires in California have been started either in whole or in part by telecommunications equipment failures: Guejito Fire in San Diego (2007), Malibu Canyon Fire (2007), the $6 billion Woolsey Fire (2018 in Malibu and Los Angeles County) and the Silverado Fire in Irvine (2020), forcing the evacuation of over 130,000 people. The cause of the 2020 Silverado Fire appears to be shared responsibility between Southern California Edison (SCE) and telecom giant T-Mobile.
In 2018 a telecommunications lashing wire belonging to a Southern California Edison (SCE) appears to have been the cause of at least one of two ignition points for The Woolsey Fire which destroyed over 400 homes in Malibu and caused residents to flee into the ocean because the three routes of exit out of the city were blocked by traffic and fire. SCE found, on a routine telecommunications equipment inspection, a broken communication line. Yet it was not repaired. Eight months later this equipment would factor into part of the initiation of the $6 billion fire that burned for over a month and consumed over a thousand homes.
The 2007 Malibu Canyon Fire was caused by the failure of an SCE utility pole that was overloaded with telecom equipment owned by AT&T, Verizon and Sprint (now T-Mobile). These four and NextG, now owned by telecom infrastructure builder Crown Castle International, Inc. were accused of misleading investigators, and eventually settled with the California Public Utilities Commission for over $60 million. If these companies were involved in attempting to mislead fire investigators, what reassurances do we have that when they come into our communities, they are coming in with safety and fire prevention as a primary concern.
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LONGMONT4SAFETECH IS COLLECTING MONETARY PLEDGES TO STOP THE SMART METERS. PLEASE PLEDGE TODAY!!!!
CURRENT PLEDGE DRIVE: OUR PLEDGE AMOUNT IS NOW A BIT OVER OUR INITIAL $10K GOAL! BUT WE’RE NOT STOPPING THERE – PLEASE HELP US STOP SMART METERS IN LONGMONT BY PLEDGING YOUR MONETARY SUPPORT.
ONCE ACTUALIZED, YOUR PLEDGES ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE THROUGH OUR PARTNERED NON-PROFIT. WE ARE NOW IN OUR SECOND PHASE OF THIS PLEDGE DRIVE, AND IF YOU ARE SOMEONE WHO IS ABLE TO PLEDGE A LARGER AMOUNT, SUCH AS IN THE THOUSANDS RATHER THAN HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS, ALL THE BETTER !!!!!
EVERY AMOUNT PLEDGED, LARGE OR SMALL, IS COMPLETELY APPRECIATED AND HELPS US TO ACQUIRE THE LEGAL ACTION WE NEED TO STOP THESE METERS COMING TO LONGMONT……
Contact: longmont4safetech@gmail.com today with your pledge!!!
Thank you.
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