NEWS

Posted February 20, 2015, 10:22 PM Updated February 20, 2015, 10:22 PM

SAN ANTONIO - Jeff Adams, president of the San Antonio Association of Real Estate Inspectors, said it's time for residents to become more aware of a safety issue that literally surrounds their home.

Corrugated stainless steel tubing gained popularity in the 1990s, as a cheaper and more versatile option for carrying natural gas into homes.

"This product is cheap and easy to run," said Adams. "It's flexible. Just roll it out, run it off and cut it."

CSST was originally created for areas prone to earthquakes because of its flexibility.

But Adams said its cost made its popularity grow across the country, including Texas.

But he warned that if not installed correctly, the line can be rupture due to electrical arcing from lightning strikes or other electrical problems in the home.

"There's a lot of issues with this product being energized period," he said. "Do a complete inspection of everything. This product can't be in contact with any type of wiring, it cannot be in contact with anything that can be energized."

Rod Sanchez, director of the city of San Antonio's development services, said most homeowners should not face serious issues as long as the tubing was installed correctly.

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Home inspector: Gas line tubing in homes a cause for concern

MASON CITY | Smoke in the attic of a Mason City home Friday was caused by a wiring issue.

The Mason City Fire Department responded to a report of smoke in the yellow one-story home at 1209 S. Carolina Ave. at about 2:45 p.m.

Mason City Fire Department Capt. Jack Odegaard said the owner and occupant of the home, David Bemis, was in the back yard and smelled smoke, and also smelled smoke when he went into the garage.

Firefighters found insulation smoldering in the attic and removed insulation and debris from the house.

Odegaard said the smoldering insulation was caused by arcing wiring.

Firefighters dumped attic insulation into the snow of the front yard. Other items from the house were put in the driveway.

Officials say no one was hurt.

A police car and fire engines blocked the street in front of the house while crews worked inside the home.

Molly Montag

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Firefighters investigate smoke in Mason City home

Posted: Wednesday, February 18, 2015 7:00 am

Faulty wiring blamed for home fire in McLean

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department units responded on Feb. 9 at around 1:45 p.m. to a fire at a single-family home at 1914 Kirby Road in McLean.

Firefighters upon arrival encountered heavy smoke coming from the roof of the two-story home. Fire crews conducted an aggressive fire attack and quickly extinguished the fire.

There was moderate damage to both the first and second floors of the home, officials said. No one was home when the fire broke out. Additionally, there were no smoke alarms in the home. Both of the occupants have been displaced and one firefighter sustained a non-life-threatening injury during the blaze, officials said.

Officials estimate the fire caused about $45,000 worth of damage. According to investigators, the fire was accidental and was caused by an anomaly in the electrical wiring to the furnace.

Posted in Region on Wednesday, February 18, 2015 7:00 am.

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Faulty wiring blamed for home fire in McLean

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - Albany firefighters battle a burning trailer, when they find the remnants of a meth lab inside. The chemicals from that meth lab in a fire could have been dangerous in that East Albany mobile home park.

Now fire investigators and drug agents want information to find who was cooking meth in that vacant mobile home.

There were families and kids in mobile homes just yards from that burning vacant home. None of the neighbors would talk with us on camera, but they were concerned; not knowing the threat just next door.

Neighbors spotted heavy smoke coming from inside the vacant mobile home just before one this morning. The wiring from the power pole started arcing, with sparks falling on the mobile home beneath.

Albany Fire Department Investigator Sam Harris said "Meth labs get pretty volatile. So if you don't know what you are doing and it gets away from you, then you have a bad accident. Upon checking the inside of the structure, they found the remnants of an old meth lab, that was inactive."

Drug agents removed the meth lab. A one-bottle cook method, including camp stove fuel. Albany Dougherty Drug Unit Sergeant Vic Camp said "Looks like a hydrogen generator, where they take salt or rock salt with muratic acid or sulfuric acid and make a generator."

Those chemicals in a fire could be dangerous. Drug agents praise firefighters for recognizing the threat and their quick response.

Camp said "If it would have got away from them and exploded, you are right, it could have caught this trailer on fire. And then maybe the trees and the brush and then caught the others trailers on fire."

Now investigators are asking for information to find out who was cooking meth inside the vacant mobile home.

Harris said "So that we can try to get these people away from the neighborhoods where children are located."

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Meth lab found in burning home

Brittany Price said she was barely dressed, her feet were freezing and she was choking on smoke when she frantically called 911 for help yesterday morning.

Worse, her children, ages 3 and 1, and a friend were still inside the trailer home south of Marion as smoke and flames poured out.

My house is on fire. I cant breathe, Price screamed into the phone. My house is up in flames. My kids are inside. I can hear them screaming.

The dispatcher, apparently misunderstanding the call from the Fountain Place Mobile Home Park, 3068 Marion-Waldo Rd., relayed the call to the Pleasant Township Fire Department as a woman having trouble breathing.

Two minutes later, Price, 23, said, You dont understand, my house is literally up in flames."

Your house is on fire? asked the dispatcher, who changed the assignment to a working fire with a trapped child.

Officials removed the wrapped body of 3-year-old Brayden Blevins about three hours later.

Rescuers took Price to Ohio State Universitys Wexner Medical Center, where she was treated for smoke inhalation and released. Brian Price, 1, was treated at Nationwide Childrens Hospital, which would not release his condition. Cheyenne Smith, 19, was in fair condition at Wexner Medical Center with serious cuts to her hands. She is to have surgery today, said Pleasant Township Fire Chief Clint Canterbury.

The victim was found in a bedroom, where it appears the fire started, Canterbury said. There were no space heaters, and the wiring was intact, investigators reported.

The home was being rented and had no working smoke detectors, officials said.

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Trailer home fire kills 3-year-old

OAKLAND, Calif. Home automation startup Skybell has developed an always-on device that streams video using only an 240 milliamp battery.

By wiring its smart doorbell to the transformer and door chime in an existing doorbell, Skybell can run its motion sensor, two-way audio, and camera with wide-angle lens on 10 volts of power. Skybells on-board battery trickles power from the existing home infrastructure so users will never have to charge the device.

Skybell was developed in the summer of 2013 as a way to remotely see who is at your front door. Pressing the doorbell button activates a camera, which sends video to a smartphone app and allows for communication between users and visitors. Its first generation device raised over $592,000 on Indiegogo and a recently shipped second-gen device now includes a lower-power Wi-Fi chip and on-demand video that allows the doorbell to act more like a surveillance system.

The Skybell doorbell's processor, sensors, and low-power Wi-Fi chip allow for streaming video. Source: Skybell

Engineers have also developed an adapter for digital doorbells, which hold power longer enabling it to play a digitized song. A small circuit board screwed into the digital doorbell adapter converts Skybells power management mode to shorten the power needed to play a chime.

Additional video recording features that use a small amount of on-board memory will be available in the next few weeks. Co-Founder Andrew Thomas hopes Skybell will morph into a really intelligent sensor at your front door that can tell your whole smart home hub what to do from turning on lights when someone approaches the door, to voice and facial recognition and response.

I see a day when Skybell can recognize speech, Thomas told EE Times. We want Skybell to be as useful by itself as it is as a platform

Still, if your home doesnt have a doorbell, Skybell will not be the device for you. Thomas isnt worried about the lost market share; rather, he sees a bright future for his doorbells place in the growing world of home automation and for the market as a whole.

Thomas believes uptake for home automation will start slow. Numerous reasons to buy an item such as a smart thermostat will improve the likelihood of creating a smart home, he said.

Im waiting to see how relationships with platforms and companies do with retailers, he said citing Home Depots Wink hub and Lowes Iris. I want to see if people are going to want to use platforms from people who sold them products or platforms based on handset they have.

See more here:
Smart Doorbell Streams Video

Ding-dong!

Whos there?

When someone is at your door, you dont know who they are until you check the peephole, or a pricey security system. If youre not at home, you may never know.

But what if your doorbell could talk? Two gadgets have turned the humble doorbell, little changed since the Victorian era, into a digital doorman.

Press the Ring or Skybell doorbells, and theyll still set off a chime in the house, but then also alert your phone with a live video feed of who is at your door. When someone prowls around the door without pressing the bell, theyll show you video of that, too. No rewiring is required, since most existing doorbells already have power.

Think of these $200 doorbells as home-monitoring systems and two-way intercoms for the smartphone era. After testing them both, theyre among the few smart-home gadgets I would actually buy and use.

Skybell Handout photo showing the Skybell doorbell

There are heaps of DIY connected security cameras on the market, but Ive found most to be a little creepy, and of questionable utility for securing regular homes. A doorbell camera makes more sense because it captures a critical passageway for the people you want to see, as well as intruders you want to keep out. It is socially acceptable: If youre standing within 10 feet of my door, pretty much everyone can agree youre presenting yourself for inspection.

There are good reasons why you might want your doorbell connected to the Internet. You can use an app to show you who is ringing while youre in the backyard, or to tell the delivery guy to leave the package when youre at work. And even if you dont have to answer the door frequently, it can offer peace of mind by alerting you if someone is casing the joint.

Setting up either the Ring or the Skybell doesnt require extra gear or an advanced degree in operating a smart home. You will need a strong Wi-Fi network in the vicinity of your front door and an Apple or Android smartphone for everyone in the family who wants to be able to check the live video feed. Both products can handle rain and a fair amount of cold.

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Your doorbell is watching

For more than 30 years the Nicholas family has lived off the power grid, in a home they built from mud, wattle leaves and timber. Reporter JASON THOMAS recently visited the solar home near Wynyard.

PHILIP and JeannineNicholas do not paypower bills, yet theirdouble-storey mudbrick home nearWynyard never gets cooler than12 degrees.

The sun heats the mud bricksduring the colder months.

Two large batteries are chargedduring daylight and the homesoccupants live comfortably at allhours.

OFF THE GRID: Philip Nicholas and his family have lived off the grid in their sustainable and eco-friendly home for more than 30 years. Picture: Grant Wells.

SCAPE: Philip Nicholas shows Scape around his eco-friendly home. Pictures: Grant Wells.

SCAPE: Philip Nicholas shows Scape around his eco-friendly home. Pictures: Grant Wells.

SCAPE: Philip Nicholas shows Scape around his eco-friendly home. Pictures: Grant Wells.

SCAPE: Philip Nicholas shows Scape around his eco-friendly home. Pictures: Grant Wells.

SCAPE: Philip Nicholas shows Scape around his eco-friendly home. Pictures: Grant Wells.

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SCAPE: Living off the grid

Imogene Wong

Monday, February 16, 2015

This continuing government thrust not only benefits the nation's three largest state-owned telecoms operators, which dominate both the wireless and fixed-line broadband service markets, but other private enterprises as well, specifically fiber optic makers.

For instance, China Fiber Optic Network System Group (3777) is set to operate its first fiber-to-home broadband business in a few months instead of just being a pure fiber optic products vendor, thanks to the government's plan to introduce more private players into the market.

"We are transforming from a fiber optic products maker into a professional internet operator," says executive director and chief financial officer Randy Hung King-kuen.

The Hebei-based company has identified vast opportunities in fiber-to- home segment.

"It is compulsory under the law since April last year for new homes to be equipped with fiber-to-the-home or FTTH network service, apart from utilities such as water, electricity and coal."

China Fiber Optic Network, now the mainland's biggest fiber optic patch cords maker with a market share of about 20 percent, ventured into the network operating business by partnering with China Telecom (0728), the world's largest fixed broadband operator.

China Fiber Optic is responsible for installing fiber optic network in return f

In the past, China Fiber Optic was confined to producing and selling fiber optic products, mainly tailor-made for telecom operators or broadcasting companies.

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Wiring up the mainland

DECATUR TOWNSHIP, CLEARFIELD COUNTY - A Philipsburg contractor is facing theft and fraud charges after police say he took a woman's money but never completed the job.

Now the homeowner is left in a financial bind.

Police say a Clearfield County woman hired a contractor to make some additions onto her home, but he never finished the job.

"There's no plumbing in. There's no wiring done," says homeowner Theo Waksmunski.

Waksmunski says the two bedrooms, bathroom, and kitchen near Osceola Mills were supposed to be finished last spring, but all she has now is the framework.

"He asked for money in advance with the thought that he was going to buy all the supplies at one time and then store them next door," says Waksmunski.

She was trying to consolidate and sell one family property, but $70,000 later and the rooms aren't fit for sleeping or cooking, but she can climb up to her deck on a ladder left behind.

"He was supposed to be done in May and at the end of May, the beginning of June, he let us know that he wasn't going to do any more work. He was quitting business," says Waksmunski.

Police say Brian Barton, 45, didn't fulfill his end of the deal, and that's a crime.

"It took most of our savings," says Waksmunski.

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Woman Loses Savings In Home Addition Project