http://www.whdh.com/story/26026526/fatal-lowell-fire-determined-to-be-accidental-electrical
Fire Marshall intimated that the electrical wire overheated due to modern electrical loads - electronics and air conditioners - if your breakers are always tripping, call an electrician - same if your lights dim when a/c comes on Re public comment about overcrowded apartments - I was told by the Arlington MA Director of Planning 10 years ago that there is no legal way in Massachusetts to limit the number of people who live in a housing unit. (Which seems to make sense - if your brother and his wife shows up at your house with his 5 kids and sleeping bags - what happens? - your occupany load just went up 100% for the night) The Lowell Fire Chief was asked what time the fire department was alerted to the fire. He said "between quarter of 4 and 4". I thought that was a strange answer. I thought he was going to give a precise moment when a 911 call was received, or a call from a Lowell PD radio was received. I saw him give a similar answer on the day of the fire. The State Fire Marshall said that there were 2 (types of) fire alarm systems in the building. There was a 110 volt system that protected the common areas and had horns in the hallways. There were also hard wired single station (smoke detectors) in each housing unit. It is hard to imagine that a building that was this well protected could sprout deadly flames so fast. But it apparently did. It was also reported that there were 2 "false alarms" per month in the building. Not malicious false or faulty system falses, but stuff like burnt food and such. This was not considered to be extraordinary. However there seemed to be the idea that the tenants had possibly become complacent to the fire alarms sounding. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "massfire" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/massfire. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
