This Aug., Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis and Dr. Joseph Clare, strategic planning analyst for the Surrey Fire Service, released a seven-page report substantiating BC Hydro’s claim that Smart Meters do not pose a fire hazard.
The report concluded that the “available data does not indicate that there has been an increased frequency of fires caused by electricity associated with illegal activity since July 2010. If anything, there is a slight decline.”
This report was commissioned by BC Hydro and was written to address a boom of suspicious fires reported all over the province, most recently in Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Comox, Mission, Coquitlam, and Sparwood. The fires in question occurred shortly after Smart Meters had been installed.
The authors of the report claim statistics from the Provincial Fire Commissioner’s office support their conclusion that there is no fire hazard.
Sharon Noble, Director of the Coalition to Stop Smart Meters, questions the accuracy of this claim. “The Fire Commissioner’s office is not able to track Smart Meter caused fires because there is no code for Smart Meters.”
Noble claims that she received an email from The Fire Reporting Systems Officer Emergency Management British Columbia, saying that “there is not an applicable fire code to attach to a Smart Meter related fire.”
In Aug., an East Vancouver family blamed the recent installation of a Smart Meter for a fire that broke out in their home. The fire followed a Smart Meter installation from BC Hydro.
“The point that I’d like to leave you and your customers is that this is a very, very small number,” BC Hydro Smart Meter Chief Gary Murphy told Global News. “The customers should not be concerned that this is going to happen. But if they do notice problems with flickering lights, please call us. We will come out and endeavour to see if there is something with regards to our service.”
