Internet phone delays 911 response to fire

Posts: 1123 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: May 26, 2005 Posts: 1123

" I could radio in a distress call"

I could see it now.

"Bravo Bravo this is Bravo Echo, stand by to copy, structural fire at 118 Turdstump Lane, send assistance immediately. Roll ambulance for 1 horse, 3 goats, and a llama. Over."

Lol

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 3:06 pm Post subject:

Actually, if he's anything like my two friends who are heavily into shortwave, he'll discover to his joy that the smoke allows him some serious bounce, he'll reach some station in Australia or something, and end up burning to death because "that's, like, the signal of a lifetime, man" Wink

Posts: 19 · Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 3:24 pm Post subject:

I love shortwave, and when the condo association is sleeping, I set up my small antenna on the patio (only in summers though, cause its too cold in winter). Yes smoke does create some usefull fun in shortwave. Then again storms provide awesome skip for the 10/11meter.

Just remember a good operator always packs heat, cause you never know when you need to record a message onto your neighbors unplugged answeringmachine, or cook food in their microwave when they aren't home. Just remember to wear your alminium foiled hat when cranking up the heat that high...hehe....(unless you can afford making it out of solid meshed copper)!!!

Posts: 1123 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: May 26, 2005 Posts: 1123

I remember the best skip I ever had, was with UHF (around 300 mhz) on a Navy ship in the Persian Gulf. We skipped it from the north end of the Gulf, to the Straits of Hormuz, so about 620 miles. I miss RF.

Posts: 81 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jan 02, 2006 Posts: 81

A couple things struck me odd with the original story here. Let me preface by saying that in 2001, the apartment complex I was living in burnt to the ground. I came home from work to see my building on fire...we lost everything - and that just aint fun.

First odd thing about the article that struck me was that he was using Vonage during a fire. If your house is on fire, wouldn't you suspect that at some point the fire will get to your cables feeding your Vonage? The fire I was in was started by a faulty electrical light in the hallway. It shorted out the power to the building before starting to catch fire...no power would have meant no cable, no computer, and no Vonage. I'm not sure what state of fire his house was in....but apprently it was still in good enough shape to support his broadband system.

Second odd part is that this guy does appear to be a little bit ont he crazy side. When I was watching my apartment burn down the things I asked to fireman to look for was our pets, and my neighbors and their pets. I didnt really care about my computer at that time. While the fireman was in my apartment looking for our cats, he did bring out some pictures and my digital camera....because he though they were important enough.

I do feel bad for him that he was put on hold...and if it was Vonage who did so, that would be even worst. Would it make me go back to POTS? No....in case of fire I get the family out and use my cell phone.

After reading this story I did a 933 test and it said my address gets forwarded to a local dispatcher. Good thing too since I just updated my address.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:24 pm Post subject:

colesch wrote:

I love shortwave, and when the condo association is sleeping, I set up my small antenna on the patio (only in summers though, cause its too cold in winter).

One of my fav. temporary antennas is a metal slinky (don't laugh -- it works) and it's small enough to carry with me if need be.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:26 pm Post subject:

navydavy2001 wrote:

I remember the best skip I ever had, was with UHF (around 300 mhz) on a Navy ship in the Persian Gulf. We skipped it from the north end of the Gulf, to the Straits of Hormuz, so about 620 miles. I miss RF.

The best/strangest skip I ever had was picking up an FM broadcast-band station (98.3Mhz, I believe) from Houston, TX in Naples, FL. It came in crystal clear, to the point that I couldn't pick up 98.3 out of Miami. E-mailed an aircheck to the station engineer who confirmed what I was hearing. Apparently there's some rare skip that happens on the Gulf which is just amazing like this.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:50 pm Post subject:

roiegat wrote:

First odd thing about the article that struck me was that he was using Vonage during a fire. If your house is on fire, wouldn't you suspect that at some point the fire will get to your cables feeding your Vonage? The fire I was in was started by a faulty electrical light in the hallway. It shorted out the power to the building before starting to catch fire...no power would have meant no cable, no computer, and no Vonage. I'm not sure what state of fire his house was in....but apprently it was still in good enough shape to support his broadband system.

Actually, the chances of there being power during the early stages of a fire are quite plausible, depending on the building construction. I can cite two cases which I've seen first-hand. The first was a condo building, made of concrete block (back-filled with a sand/concrete mix). The fire was started by grocery bags leaning against (and thereupon activating) the toaster, then igniting. The 1st floor of the condo sustained major damage, 2nd floor had heavy smoke damage and some fire damage in the stairway area (townhouse-style condo), but the lights upstairs and in the front room stayed on throughout the duration of the fire until power was finally pulled to the building. Most of the wiring had been in the concrete block, in conduit, therefore protected from the flames and heat.

The second would be an event which happened 2 weeks back at a trade show. They often use temporary power setups consisting of circuit breaker panels (called distros, short for distribution panels) which are tied into the building's power supply. Well, an older 3-phase panel somehow arced internally, appears to be a matter of bad (loose) lugs which allowed a wire to bridge 2 of the 3 phases, then ultimately all 3 phases became involved. 6 gauge wire was connected between the distro and the building's 600 amp 3-phase disconnect. In this case, the wire, even when dead-shorted, wasn't enough to blow the fuses and the arcing continued until building maintenance killed the disconnect. I examined the carcass of the panel this past weekend and it's a total loss. Fire burned a hole straight through the faceplate and was starting to make a good hole in the outer cover of the can. Flames shot out of an unused (open) knock-out which damaged a nearby wall. Flames also shot out of the main cable entrance to the panel. Needless to say, this incident has caused the building owners to totally re-evaluate fire safety.

These are two very odd situations. Most construction isn't as good as the first situation, and I highly doubt many people have a huge amount of electrical service at their residence. The second situation is rare in commercial buildings as well. Other than temporary events, like trade shows and rock concerts, I can't think of anywhere else that something like this is routinely done.

Quote:

Second odd part is that this guy does appear to be a little bit ont he crazy side.

The police having to chase the guy & arrest him kind of leads me to believe this part is definitely true. Smile

As an aside, I just called 933 here and for the first time heard "Enhanced 911 is enabled"... cool.

Posts: 101 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jun 05, 2005 Posts: 101

True story? Who knows. To me, it sounds like a bunch of B.S.

However.....
The town this person lives in is Chanhassen Minnesota. They have a volunteer fire department.

One of several problems is that volunteer fire departments can't always be "on the scene" in 3-5 minutes like a full time paid department. The biggest part of the volunteer personnel work day time jobs; if you have a fire 8-5, your fire dept. is at their OTHER job. At best, if you have a 45 member dept (like they have) you will get maybe 10 - 12 firefighters which is still delayed.... These guys have to leave their house, go to the fire station, pickup the fire truck (maybe wait on 1-2 other people to arrive) and then head to the fire.

Within 10 minutes or so, you have 3-5 firefighters on scene. In 20-25 minutes you might have a total of 10-12. Even with 10-12 firefighters, you are still short handed on the fire ground.
1 guy pumping truck.... 2 making an attack.... 4 on ventilation ... 2 on search / rescue..... 2 as RIT.... 1 safety.... 1 command that right there is 13 guys; you are already short handed and not all jobs are filled.

Chances of your house burning increase greatly if you have a volunteer fire dept. That's why your insurance rates are possibly higher. It's ISO 3 vs. ISO 10

I can see how it became a 5 alarm fire so quickly. The question is, what percent of ALL of their fires are multiple alarm fires? And, what constitutes another alarm? Do they respond 1 truck and after that, each Mutual Aid dept assisting is each 1 alarm?

Anyway....