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. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake