It was a very easy investigation. Anyone with 10 minutes of training would see it started on the stereo stand, the guy was returning from the bar and his 3 cats were dead and he was crying his butt off, lost his pictures, albums etc. Place was locked, he was gone 45 mins.

Plywood walls, nice V pattern, lowest point over the stereo. 2 hours to take the ceiling and insulation off the floor, dig out the debris. Remember it like yesterday.

I think there were newspapers all over the stereo, were the heat vents were on the top, but that evidence was just a bit of paper embedded in melted plastic you cut apart and go 'hummmm'....

According to the government electrical inspectors there are almost no electrical fires. If they inspected it......could not happen.

There's one huge difference between the US and here. I studied Fire Engineering at Cinci, and the US inspectors have no power at all. On the other hand you cannot stop a Canadian Inspector from going anywhere at a 'reasonable time'. A rights issue. Good sides and bad sides to that argument, I was always glad I didn't have to get a search warrant to prove some guy had the back doors of his bar locked with chains.

That's why we were all trained as first line electrical inspectors for existing buildings. I did 3 strikes and then used the authority to say, pull an electrical permit within 24 hours and fax it to me, or I order a $100 inspection and the inspector will tell you the same thing, I'm just saving you $100 bucks...

Some days I miss working...I still have my bag with flashlights, electrical testers, and a laser heat tester that works great on panels and outlets, point and shoot. I use that on compressors in bars now, $30 bucks and I record everything once a month. Do the heating and cooling vents too. Those things are like $40 now.

John Conley
Musica est vita