RF, Vegetation, The Grid, and Fires

And smart meters? Is there a connection?

The Discovery and Science of Smart Meter Fires - an excellent reference describing individual fires, not infernos. Books sold at Home - Fire Safety Books - Fire Science and Technology Inc.

There are a number of videos making the rounds with claims that homes without smart meters did not burn in the California inferno. I am very cautious about sharing posts that I can’t verify and substantiate. I often see old posts on Facebook and Google searches recirculating as new news, lack of location data and source, and claims that are not substantiated. When we get it wrong, or even when we get it right, the Department of Energy and others may respond in ways that undermine efforts towards understanding and insight.

An Early Indictment of the Public’s Concern Regarding Smart Meter Fires

Early on the smart meter debacle, in June of 2013, the Department of Energy published this paper: Voices of Experience: Insights on Smart Grid Customer Engagement. Voices of Experience is 49 pages of industry strategy and commentary, featuring some historical perspectives on deployments including Central Maine Power, Florida Power and Light, National Grid, Sacramento (SMUD), Duke Energy, and others.

The report included this paragraph indicting a Hawaii customer for misinformation about smart meter fires:

Page 32: “Don’t allow lies to linger unchallenged. Move quickly to respond with facts that can be backed up with documentation. Do your own reporting. When a local blogger confidently reported that “900 fires and 60 deaths” had been attributed to smart meters, I called the National Fire Protection Association in Massachusetts, talked to their head researcher and debunked that claim, putting the information on the blogger’s page, on our Facebook page and Twitter. We never heard anything more about fires.” —Jim Kelly, Communications Manager, Kauai Island Utility Cooperative

To my knowledge, the claim about 60 deaths in 2013 is completely unsubstantiated (although I do not doubt that many have been harmed.)

So is any implication that the industry never heard more about fire risks, in Hawaii or anywhere. I attempted to search on-line for the referenced blog to no avail.

I don’t know that this scenario painted by the industry actually ever happened, as the various utilities brag in the report about how they overcame resistance and manipulated and shut down their informed customers. But I don’t want any of us to end up in a DOE report about lies regarding meter concerns. There is enough legitimate risk and harm. (And we don’t know if an industry shill created the supposed blog in the first place.)

Note: (www.SafeTechHawaii.com if you are interested in Hawaii)

Previous Fire Investigations

There is no complete, accurate, official database of smart meter involved fires.

Insurance industry whistle-blower Norman Lambe reported that meters were being pulled from the scene of fires by utilities, prior to fire investigation.

Testimony & Exhibits by Norman Lambe, Insurance Adjuster – New Mexico PRC – July 13, 2016 | Coalition to Stop Smart Meters in BC See also: May 30, 2024 – https://citizensforsafertech.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/NORM-LAMBE–INSURANCE-INDUSTRY-SMART-METER-FIRES-WHISTLEBLOWER.pdf Articles by Norman Lambe, Insurance Adjuster – Smart Meters & Fires (2011-2016) (Norm now publishes at Substack here: Norman’s Substack | Norman Lambe | Substack)

Volunteer Activists Took on the Role of Receiving Fire and Explosion Reports

• Fires and Explosions – EMF Safety Network

• Fires | Stop Smart Meters!

• FAQ: Fire and Safety Issues | Stop Smart Meters

Read the following interview with a “smart” meter installer, to learn shocking details of how meter installers can be poorly trained, new workers who sometimes install them incorrectly, and are only given 15 minutes for each one. Incorrectly installed “smart” meters can be fire hazards. Stop Smart Meters! Exclusive: Interview with the Wellington Energy Whistleblower. [] If you are hearing humming, buzzing in the wires, have power going on and off, your home may be at risk for “smart” meter fires or burn-outs of your home appliances. [] Report it to your local utility company by phone and in writing, document the problem, and consider checking with your electrician. These types of problems may not be covered by your insurance if the damage is caused by the utility company. Read: Smart Meter Arcing Hazard. We have heard reports “off the record” that fire chiefs and firefighters have expressed serious misgivings about the new meters and their association with electrical fires.

• Citizens For Safer Tech | Smart Meters, Cell Towers, Smart Phones, 5G and all things that radiate RF Radiation The fire list is here: SMART METER FIRES | Citizens For Safer Tech courtesy Sharon Noble

The Stockton Smart Meter Explosions Demonstrated The Danger of Surges Spread Via the Grid

As reported by Joshua Hart of Stop Smart Meters:

Wheels Coming Off Smart Grid as PG&E Smart Meters Explode/ Burn/ Smoulder in Stockton, CA After Crash Causes Surge | Stop Smart Meters!

One Fatality is Too Many: When ‘Smart’ Meters Kill: The Story of Larry Nikkel — Details Emerge of Vacaville, CA Smart Meter Fire Death

When ‘Smart’ Meters Kill: The Story of Larry Nikkel — Details Emerge of Vacaville, CA Smart Meter Fire Death | Stop Smart Meters!

RFSafe: Are Smart Meters Fueling Fires? A Look at Dr. Jack Kruse’s Claim, and Necessary Questions

RFSafe has published a blog asking some questions about the role of smart meters and the fires HERE, in reference to a post by Jack Kruse describing a smart meter as a fire starter, and sending readers to Jerry Day’s website.

“While our primary focus has been on the non-thermal biological effects of radiation exposure, this is yet another example of how modern technologies—designed for convenience—may have unintended consequences that demand scrutiny.”

Are Smart Meters Fueling Fires? A Look at Dr. Jack Kruse’s Claim * RF SAFE® Radio Frequency Safe

I believe it is very wise to approach the smart meter/RF/EMF debacle with questions rather than claims, especially with a skeptical audience, even when I am fairly certain that I am “right.”

Flammability Impacts of RF on Plants

Here is another line of questioning - What if flammability of vegetation cannot be attributed solely to drought, but to the plant’s response to radio frequencies?

How the Impact of Electromagnetic Fields on Plants Can Greatly Increase Severity of and Even Occurrence of “Wildfires”: A Four-Part Structure was published by Dr. Martin Pall in 2024.

The paper is open access so you can download it here: https://juniperpublishers.com/ecoa/pdf/ECOA.MS.ID.555631.pdf

Pall ML. How the Impact of Electromagnetic Fields on Plants Can Greatly Increase Severity of and Even Occurrence of "Wildfires: A Four-Part Structure. Ecology & Conservation Science: Open Access. 2024. doi: 10.19080/ECOA.2023.04.555631

Abstract

Low growing plants near buildings and electric powerlines often burn explosively at extreme temperatures, leaving a light gray powder whereas plants away from such sources of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) burn more normally, leaving slightly burned and/or charred materials. It is argued here that EMFs trigger a four-part mechanism producing this unusual pattern. Electronically generated EMFs impact plants via activation of voltage-controlled calcium channels, causing increases in plant terpenes and three other classes of volatiles (polyamines, lipid peroxidation volatiles and methyl jasmonate) and large increases in peroxynitrite and reactive free radicals.

Four processes ensue:

1. The volatile terpenes make plants much more flammable.

2. Each of the four classes of volatiles accumulate in the air under very low wind conditions, and the heavy volatile-containing air spreads over the ground, selectively producing plasma membrane depolarization in low growing plants and parts of plants. Depolarization activates the same calcium channels activated by EMFs, selectively spreading and amplifying EMF-like effects to these low growing plants.

3. The terpenes react with free radicals and O2 to produce three classes of explosive terpene-derived chemicals, hydroperoxides, nitrate esters and nitro compounds. Accordingly, the explosive burning of these three classes of terpene derived chemicals in low growing plants produces very rapidly advancing low level firestorms which when they hit adjacent buildings also causes the buildings to burn at extremely high temperatures, leaving a light gray powder.

4. Terpene hydroperoxides because of their low thermostability may cause spontaneous combustion. Appropriate conditions for spontaneous combustion may be limited to plant materials in depressions in the ground.

Sixteen fire observations are inconsistent with climate change being the sole cause of fire severity but are consistent with the proposed mechanism. Wind records from four large explosive US fires were examined and were found to be consistent with prediction. High voltage powerline roles in fires may be caused by powerline dirty electricity produced EMFs rather than poor maintenance as has previously been claimed.

Open access paper: https://juniperpublishers.com/ecoa/pdf/ECOA.MS.ID.555631.pdf

RFSAFE: What We Don’t Know

• How many of the homes destroyed in the Palisades fires had battery-powered smart meters.

• Whether smart meters played a direct or indirect role in worsening the fire damage.

• The extent to which utility companies test their meters for extreme conditions like wildfires. - SOURCE

We need to ask about plants.

And we need to ask about whether humans are experiencing similar patterns of stress.

To Be Forewarned: I recommend downloading this historical industry report and keeping it for your reference if you want it, as these things tend to disappear on a regular basis when they are brought to the attention of the public.

Especially if you are in RI, MA, NY, or NM with imminent deployment:

A 2013 Resource About How the Industry Infiltrated Communities to Promote Smart Meters

Voices of Experience: Insights on Smart Grid Customer Engagement

VOICES of Experience, Insights on Smart Grid Customer Engagement, was authored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Electricity under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding provided by Subtask SG10.1011 in conjunction with Energetics Incorporated under contract No. GS-10F0103J, Subtask J3806.0002. [] Why the Smart Grid Customer Engagement Guide? The success of the Smart Grid will depend in part on consumers taking a more proactive role in managing their energy use. This document is the result of a nine-month effort to compile information on the successful approaches used by utilities to engage customers regarding smart grid technology deployments. Voices of Experience|Insights on Smart Grid Customer Engagement (the Guide) provides practical advice in the form of “Industry Insights” from utilities that have implemented smart grid projects to educate and engage their customers. It is not a road map, how-to guide, or even a handbook. It is simply an effort to capture the industry’s knowledge—and “voices of experience.” Customer engagement within the electric power industry is an evolving, ongoing process that is just beginning to emerge. While this cap Guide may lean towards advanced metering infrastructure (AMI)/smart meter customer engagement (that is the technology on which participating utilities were most often focused), the principles and insights apply to a much broader perspective including engaging customers for dynamic pricing programs, demand response programs, distribution automation (e.g.; outage communication), and other technology such as home area network (HAN) devices.

See strategies on page 12

Pay Attention to Fire Reports

Smart meter fires usually start on the outside of the home, and therefore there is a significant lag time before they are detected.

Informed consumers are watching fire reports. Thanks for being a deep thinker and helping foster necessary change.

SMART METER FIRES | Citizens For Safer Tech