Pubdate: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 Source: Now, The (Surrey, CN BC) Copyright: 2007 South Fraser Publishing Ltd. Contact: http://www.thenownewspaper.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1462 Author: Marisa Babic, Surrey Now Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Marijuana - Canada) POWER PROGRAM PULLS PLUG ON GROW-OPS Surrey Fire Department Reports Success With Electrical Inspection of Certain Homes When the City of Surrey first launched a program to have the fire department inspect homes using suspicious amounts of power, some wondered if it was worth the effort. Wonder no more. "It's working," Chief Len Garis says. Surrey's crackdown on pot grow-ops through its Electrical Fire Safety Inspection program has shut down a substantial number of illicit operations and led to a drop in the number of house fires in the city, according to a report for city council from Chief Garis. The report shows that between July 27, 2006 and June 25, 2007, 65 per cent of places inspected were no longer attracting the attention of the program (the operation may have shut down or the home is no longer using suspicious amounts of power). Marijuana growers often tamper with electrical equipment in houses they either own or rent to bypass the system in order to tap into free electricity for their marijuana cultivation. This tampering frequently leads to fires due to improperly installed homemade systems, which results in tripping, shock and fire hazards. Surrey's program, which is now being copied by other cities, was launched in response to the high number of fires caused by marijuana growers in the city. In partnership with BC Hydro, the EFSI initiative allows electrical inspections of houses that are consuming higher than normal levels of electricity. The team consists of one electrical inspector, one firefighter and two police officers. The report shows that in 2003, pot grow operation-related fires had climbed to about 15 per cent per year, accounting for 8.7 per cent of all residential fires. In 2006, the first full year of the EFSI program, the number of fires sparked by grow-ops dropped to 3.7 per cent -- or nine fires, which was a 40 per cent decrease from the previous year. In Surrey, the data reveals that the chances of a grow operation catching on fire was one in 22 -- or 24 times more likely to catch on fire than other houses in the city. In January of 2007, the Surrey EFSI team was expanded and inspected 1,000 addresses obtained from Hydro that meet the criteria of unusually high consumption. Inspections conducted during the first half of 2007 identified electrical deficiencies in 86 per cent of the homes inspected, or nearly nine of out every 10 places inspected. Mayor Dianne Watts says Surrey was the first to have the EFSI inspection teams and cities in the region and across Canada have shown an interest in copying the successful program. Watts noted the program also protects prospective homebuyers. The tampered houses are red-flagged on the tax roll and can't be sold or rented without the prospective client's knowledge of its history. The hydroponic method used by pot growers leads to mould problems in the houses. "So if someone's buying a house they know it was a grow-op," she said. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake