A fire at one of the Olympic venues? Try again, Alex.
The picture above was supposed to be a smoking gun of damnation in the Ark Tsisserev affair, according to Alex Tsakumis.
As he claimed when he first posted the photo:
“The picture…is from this last weekend. It’s a fire that started because of faulty wiring at one of the Olympic venues–clearly uninspected. Copies have been circulated to the appropriate authorities including the Vancouver Fire Department and Vancouver Police Department.”
Yet, like I questioned in an earlier post, I doubted whether a fire had actually started at any of the venues that the public streamed into during the Olympics.
And now an internal document from Vancouver City Hall confirms my suspicions.
This report clearly shows in the final two points of the document that the fire did not occur at an Olympic venue:
- During the Olympic Games, a small fire in one of the trailers (not a Pavilion) was reported
- The fire was immediately addressed and it was reported that the cause of the fire was related to an overloaded breaker serving a service trailer on the site
This approach of selective reporting is similar to Tsakumis’ claim about the documents I posted in the above-linked commentary:
“I had already released the same paperwork from the City of Vancouver, well-over a month and half ago, showing that Mr. Tsisserev signed off on the problematic panels that are in place at the Olympic Village–but that they were STILL a potential problem.”
Really? Well, Tsakumis’ post from February 9th mentions the documents, but never releases them as he claims. He conveniently extracted excerpts from Tsisserev’s email that warned of potential danger. However, Tsakumis never references the following paragraphs from Tsisserev after he received a report dealing with these concerns from Underwriter Laboratories of Canada:
“Please, be advised that the conclusions presented in this report are deemed to be satisfactory to this office for the purpose of acceptance of the referenced product for installation in Vancouver as an “approved” fire alarm control panel.”
“By the copy of this email to Tony Mezenberg and Scott McCuaig I’m advising Technical Management of GE Security that the referenced issues is considered to be resolved, and that all restrictions on the use of EST3 in the City of Vancouver indicated in my original email to Scott are no longer applicable.”
As Tsakumis acknowledges, “Mr. Tsisserev signed off on the problematic panels that are in place at the Olympic Village – but that they were STILL a potential problem.”
Yes, Tsisserev states that “the Technical Committee responsible for a development ULC S 527 should review current requirements of this standard so, as to mitigate any future design, construction and performance problems described in the report – for the benefit of fire safety.”
Yet, Tsisserev continues on to label the issues he raised as “resolved” and that his concerns about the use of the EST 3 were “no longer applicable”?
Furthermore, on January 19, Tsisserev also signed off on a set of waivers that relieved the Chief Building Official and his team from monitoring the fire alarm systems at some Olympic special event facilities.
I have read Tsakumis’ complaints and concerns very carefully, and what I have been able to determine is that they all have to do with parameters that Tsisserev gave his approval to.
So, my question to Tsakumis is this: Are you questioning the legitimacy of Tsisserev’s expert decisions in relation to both the comfort he showed with the EST 3 fire alarm control panel and his acceptance of the waivers for certain temporary Olympic venues?
Because it certainly seems as such, rendering your virulent attacks on the Mayor and the City Manager as grossly misplaced.
Jonathan. The trailer that caught fire (a copy of the picture I supplied Mr. Tsakumis is posted in this blog) was actually part of the Canada Pavilion. The pavilion itself (as it turns out) was spared any damage by a very quick acting individual. There are a great deal of questions that have been raised in the wake of the release of this documentation by the city. I can tell you that a “Contractors Declaration” is NOT an inspection. Most of the venues were “signed off” based on just such a declaration and were NOT FORMALLY INSPECTED because city inspectors couldn’t obtain the necessary clearances to attend the sites after a certain date. I also don’t think that you’ve accurately presented the issue regarding the fire watch imposed on buildings and venues in which the GE Security EST-3 panels were installed. Ark was interested in only one thing. That someone (other than the City) accept full responsibility for the operation of these panels. He accomplished this goal when ULC issued the letter which also formed part of the package everyone received. You must realize that Ark was also the ONLY REGULATOR IN CANADA that took official (and appropriate) action in response to the reports of malfunctions with this equipment. He did what he was hired to do – and what his responsibility as a regulator mandated him to do – and that was to protect the citizens of Vancouver.
You disparage Alex Tsakumis unfairly as well. He has provided fair and balanced reporting of the main issue here. Yes, he does become somewhat “political” in certain places, but through all of this he has been the only one of your peers that has kept the focus on the central issue: That the people of Vancouver are “less safe” than what they were with Arkady Tsisserev as City Electrician.
In the coming days you will be seeing some interesting developments regarding this story.
Regards,
Frank Kurz
http://www.firetechs.net
Gee, perhaps you might want to explain how a trained electrical life safety guy is siding with Tsakumis and not with you?
As I said before, if we lose the next election we will have you to thank along with the rest of the fools paying you to do this. Like Tsakumis or not you have badly manipulated his statements here. Frank Kurz is right totally right when he writes that you disparage Tsakumis because as much as I dislike his right-wing background, on this issue he has caused us a lot of problems because Penny has screwed things up. It certainly did not help when Gregor went on air and could not remember the details of a meeting he chaired. Come on Jonathan give this one a rest. Tsakumis got us. The question you want him to answer above does not even make sense and makes you look like you can not understand the issue. I know you probably will not print this but if you are prepared to be fair you should. Move on please before he pounds on us some more.