I posted back a few years ago that a city fire marshal was trying to make contractors install a disconnect on the outside of all structures for the same reason some stated above, when he was shot down by the state of Indiana's building commission our AHJ, he then tried to get it into law via state legislators, most of the arguments for it revolved around the being safer for the fireman, but we showed that if a fireman was to open a disconnect at the same time the feeders was to fault that fireman would be or could be exposed to a large explosive arc flash, we also showed the only true way to remove power from an involved building was to train the firemen to use hot sticks as was already being done in most jurisdictions, and even if you put such a code into law today, because of grandfather laws it will be many years before buildings would all have outside disconnects so firemen would still have to be trained to pull the transformer fuse with a hot stick for many years to come, pulling the meter is suicide unless the firemen had a full gorilla suit on, if you have departments doing this they need to hook up with the utility so they can learn how to safely use a hot stick to pull the transformer fuse.
The law also has to look at the financial burden a law puts on the people before it can be put into effect, in this case the benefits did not out weighed the cost to the people of our state and it was voted down.
Here are some other dangers a law like this will introduce to a building and the owners of these buildings.
Kids love to play games, how many houses that are sitting empty waiting to be sold or the owners go to somewhere south every year sometimes up to 6 months in the winter, think of the cost of the damage vandals can do if they can shut off the power in the winter and it goes un-noticed till the owners get back, they can cause thousands of dollars in damage in frozen water lines and or broken pipes flooding finished basements.
It makes it much easier for copper thieves when they can remove the power not that it makes it much of a difference to them but it does slow them down.
I have seen a local covenant store/gas station had to close for the night thinking the power failed but it was only kids playing around and turned off the disconnect, most of these night time store workers would not know the difference, they lost allot of money because of this.
Banks would not want a disconnect readily available for the same reasons, the list goes on.
I have been called out even to homes where kids turned off the power and the home owner didn't know what happened and called us, so yes it can even cost home owners, I know I would not want an outside disconnect at my house.
so the reality of this is it will not add much safety for the firemen who still will have to learn how to properly pull the fuse with a hot stick for years to come (which has been proved to be the safest way to remove power from a burning building), and at the same time can add thousands of dollars not only the extra cost of the equipment but for the damage I stated above to the residents of that state that adopts such a law, all of the above was presented to the state which is why it was voted down here in Indiana.
Also almost all our fire trucks will have a hot stick on it as part of their normal fire tools, the utility is the first call but if their ETA is to long and the firemen can't wait then they get out the hot stick.
We have buildings where the meters are all located inside and are fed underground, again hot stick is the only way.
Here's a link to my old post:
Outside disconnect's might be mandatory in the state of
