SQUIRELLS HAVE EATEN CABLES!

[macsecurity2011]

Hi guys im a new suscriber and i hope you can answer my questions. I recently went out to a church to fix their alarm. Whilst i was in the attic i
realised that probably 90% of the wiring was chewed by a squirrell. Each electrical wire is completely chewed through exposing all 3 copper cores. I informed the person from the church and told them it was dangerous but they have not done anything about it. The reason i know this is i was back out doing some more work on the alarm. I asked if they were going to sort it but they said thery were not too bothered.

Is this very dangerous due to arcing etc?

I ask as i do not want the church to burn down especially as i was the last person in doing work.

I am thinking of putting an advisory note on my paperwork to say i have seen and told them of the problem.

Am i being overdramatic or should this be rectified urgently. I dont want to look like an idiot by telling them the install should be condemned!

thanks for your help.

 

[RF Lighting]

No you are not over reacting at all.

The installation is in a very very dangerous condition.

Do not touch any of the wiring. Do not go in the the attic. Keep well away from it.

Unfortunately other than advising the customer there is not a great deal you can do. Perhaps put your concerns in to writing and send it to them?

I have seen what squirrels do to wiring, and it is unbelievable how much damage they cause.

 

[JACKC]

It is indeed very dangerous, the last time I was in a church roof I could hear "pop, pop, pop" when I looked a bit closer I found a weasel.

 

[MrTinker]

I am thinking of putting an advisory note on my paperwork to say i have seen and told them of the problem.

Get them to put there signature next to it to

Edit; Also a call or click to the HSE would definitely go in your favour, when/if it all goes belly up

 

[JohnD]

there is doubtless a committe of some kind responsible for upkeep of the building. Write to the secretary with your findings, requesting that it is raised at their next meeting. Copy it to the vicar or priest who is probably held responsible. The committee will probably be named on a noticeboard in the porch or the streetside noticeboard.

If you wanted to you could write to the bishop as well.

Once it is in writing it will be difficult for them to pretend they didn't know or you didn't express yourself clearly.

Include the fact that as there are exposed live cables it is not safe for you, or anyone else, to work up there.

 

[Taylortwocities]

It is indeed very dangerous, the last time I was in a church roof I could hear "pop, pop, pop" when I looked a bit closer I found a weasel.

Was it weaselly recognisable?

 

[bernardgreen]

A colleague had a problem with a church committee that would not act on his warnings about a dangerous situation. The socket for the tea urn in the church hall had no earth connection, just twin cable. When it was still being used a week later without the socket being rewired he superglued a " THIS IS DANGEROUS TO USE " label on the socket and taped a similar one on the urn. It got fixed.

 

[JohnD]

it's not much trouble to a church. After all, they've got their own graveyard.

 

[bernardgreen]

it's not much trouble to a church. After all, they've got their own graveyard.

And no doubt ( they hoped ) God was on their side.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I am thinking of putting an advisory note on my paperwork to say i have seen and told them of the problem.

Get them to put there signature next to it to

Edit; Also a call or click to the HSE would definitely go in your favour, when/if it all goes belly up

And, (apologies for the mention of 2 more varieties of vermin), you could put the cat amongst the pigeons by cc'ing their insurers.

 

[macsecurity2011]

Thanks for all your replies,

I will certainly included it on my paperwork and get it signed by the church but its a tricky one as i am in line to get a lot of work from this church as they have in excess of £300M worth of property in my area i dont want to rat on them but on the other side i do not want their premises burning down or worse someone getting hurt.

Work is never easy

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

Get them to put there signature next to it to

One hears this suggestion rather often on Electrical forums. I often wonder how you expect to force someone to sign something if they don't want to. I wouldn't sign anything without some clear legal reason requiring me to.

I am not, by the way, making light of the matter. The situation in the church is clearly serious.

 

[westie101]

Given the high fire risk I would have thought a word with the local fire service could be useful

 

[digdilem]

Knowing a little how committees work, I would advise both an advisory on your work notice, and also a letter outlining the exact area, extent of damage and possible consequences (as others have detailed above) - with photo of the damage - sent with it. The photo is a superb tool for explaining to people, whether technical or not, what you mean. Has far more impact than words.

Do not include any recommendations for possible electricians or your letter could be viewed as scaremongering to get work or kickbacks.

 

[MrTinker]

Get them to put there signature next to it to

One hears this suggestion rather often on Electrical forums. I often wonder how you expect to force someone to sign something if they don't want to. I wouldn't sign anything without some clear legal reason requiring me to.

I am not, by the way, making light of the matter. The situation in the church is clearly serious.

I would not try and force someone to sign anything that they didn’t want to, but in a situation like this, if they refused to put there signature on your job sheet, to confirm that you had informed them of a dangerous situation, personally alarm bells would start ringing in my head! I would take that as a refusal to admit, that I had ever told them about the problem, and would report it to a suitable body. Call me cynical if you like, but I very nearly ended up in court over something similar, it a bit of a long story so I won’t bore you with the details, but that caused me some sleepless nights! considering I had done nothing wrong, and had noted the fault on my paperwork, I still nearly had to face the music when that fault went wrong!