I was fired at my job

[don]

for telling the co there may be some problems with the federal pacific breakers in their personal care home. I was working maintenance at a personal care home and one day in the maintenance room a circuit went down. The breaker that supplied the circuit ok but I found that someone had run a wire from the neutral buss to the panel box. The panel was a sub panel. This wire had all it's insulation burnt off it. It was black. I showed my boss and he said leave it alone. I looked into why the circuit was not working and found where someone had brought two circuits together in a junction box. Something had happened to the neutral in there and it lost its connection for some reason.I went to the next junction box and found the neutral was ok there, so I ran a temp neutral and capped off the bad one. This started a curiousity in my mind so I started doing some research on the fpe panels. I told my boss I had found some unfavorable articles on these panels and I would give those articles to him when he came back from vacation. I was fired the day he was to return from vacation. No reason given just terminated. I called the state and informed them about the ele but they said would look into it but they really don't have any control over this. The building is large and has many sub panel boxes through out, all fpe. The main panel has cartridge fuses and runs very warm. I changed a cartridge fuse in it one day (100 amp)and by the time I had arrived there a half an hour had past. I used a puller to get the fuse out and I still could not hold the fuse due to how hot it was.
I worry about those residents there, many of their beds are up against recepticles with many things plugged into the recepticle. Should one of those wires be rubbed into a short and the fpe breaker fail to trip, someone or many people may be injured or worse. I am leaving my email address if anyone has any suggestions please email me

{Moderator's Note: Edited to remove personal contact information. If you wish to contact this person, please send a Private Message.}

[ August 15, 2005, 05:37 PM: Message edited by: charlie b ]

 

[jimwalker]

Re: I was fired at my job

If you were told to leave it alone and you didn't then you should exspect they didn't want nothing done.While your trying to do the right thing they dont want to spend the money.To them you were a problem that could turn ugly.If you hand this info over to the ahj and they wont take action then call your local newspaper,tv stations,and put a letter in each residents mail.That should get something going.It sure won't help you get another job.Set them up by having someone call and ask about you.They best be carefull what they say.

 

[physis]

Re: I was fired at my job

Forget about it. If nobody wants to know that there may be a problem then you can't do any good in that regard working there. If the AHJ doesn't want to know, well, thats because somebody isn't "enjoying" that information, for whatever reason, I'm not implying any misdeed.

There are plenty of places to work. I wouldn't be surprised if some outfits attempted to blame an employee when something does make it to the fan.

I look at this way, they've done you a favor.

 

[George Stolz]

Re: I was fired at my job

Originally posted by physis:
There are plenty of places to work.
...

I look at this way, they've done you a favor.

Agreed.

Start looking, and don't look back.

 

[hurk27]

Re: I was fired at my job

I many states these places are controlled by the state health board/commission, Have you given them a call, What state are you in, I agree the residents need a voice also if there lives are in jeopardy, You should be able to remain anonymous.

Edited to add try the local/state fire marshal

[ August 16, 2005, 12:57 AM: Message edited by: hurk27 ]

 

[physis]

Re: I was fired at my job

In California, a friend of mine just went through this whole wrongful termination thing based on a "retaliatory action" (similar to what you might be describing but this was accounting, even more dangerous than electricity ).

It was pretty stupid because the state, by it's laws, actually all but caused a suit to be filed within an obsurd time allowance, insisted a bunch of things be done in order to make the case viable and from there proceeded to not do any of the things that were supposed to happen as as promised for doing it their way.

What a mess. What a stupid endeavor for everybody involved. And the worst part is that the state talked the plantif into it. At least partly.

 

[petersonra]

Re: I was fired at my job

I have heard these tales of being fired for safety reasons. i am usually a bit skeptical because you usually hear only one side of the story.

unless i have enough facts to evaluate what really happened, i am not inclined to suggest any particular course of action.

if there is a serious and immediate threat to someone's life or health it is important to take action. to me the idea that a damaged extension cord might not trip the breaker is not an immediate threat. even if the cb was perfectly functional, even if it was an afci breaker, it might well not trip just because the extension cord became damaged.

I have a certain level of sympathy for anyone who gets fired or laid off, whether they deserve it or not. but to suggest a course of action based on the minimal details and one side of a story like this does not seem especially prudent.

no offense to the OP, but he needs to forget about it and move on with his life and find employment elsewhere.

anyplace you work will have sub-optimal situations. if you insist on trying to "fix' all such situations, you are beating your head against a brick wall and will come away with a bloody headache and it won't change anything.

pick your battles where it really matters and where you have a chance of success. if you work for an employer that is barely able to keep his head above water financially, asking for your employer to take on a financial burden that they just cannot afford is not likely to looked on kindly.

it might have been better if the situation really bothered the OP to gather actual data from the many sources such things are available from and present them in a non-threatening and professional way. it's far more likely to be received in a positive light that way. plus it is understandable and verifiable. just voicing an opinion that something is a hazard does not get you much without some backup.

 

[charlie tuna]

Re: I was fired at my job

you've heard the saying "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink" ?? your boss doesn't want to hear about "problems" -- forget it and go ahead with your life. do you want to work for someone who doesn't care about others??? there is a house on my street that has an open swimming pool in the back yard. i noticed the fence gate was knocked down on one side which could allow children or animals to wonder in and drown in the pool. i called the city who made them correct the fence by installing new gates---now they leave the gates open--go figure!

 

[jeff43222]

Re: I was fired at my job

I agree that they did you a favor. They're probably the kind of outfit that would blame you when something did go wrong, even if you had nothing to do with it.

This is one of many reasons I run my own shop. If I had employees, I'd want them to bring any safety concerns directly to me so they could be resolved.

 

[terille]

Re: I was fired at my job

If you believe that lives are at risk, call their insurance company and report what you have seen.
After all the main reason companies do upgrades is due to insurance requirements. Other than that don't look back and consider yourself lucky. Think what kind of trama it would be for you to be working there and have a fire. Especially if there was a fatality. Some things are not worth it.
Terille


Originally posted by don:
for telling the co there may be some problems with the federal pacific breakers in their personal care home. I was working maintenance at a personal care home and one day in the maintenance room a circuit went down. The breaker that supplied the circuit ok but I found that someone had run a wire from the neutral buss to the panel box. The panel was a sub panel. This wire had all it's insulation burnt off it. It was black. I showed my boss and he said leave it alone. I looked into why the circuit was not working and found where someone had brought two circuits together in a junction box. Something had happened to the neutral in there and it lost its connection for some reason.I went to the next junction box and found the neutral was ok there, so I ran a temp neutral and capped off the bad one. This started a curiousity in my mind so I started doing some research on the fpe panels. I told my boss I had found some unfavorable articles on these panels and I would give those articles to him when he came back from vacation. I was fired the day he was to return from vacation. No reason given just terminated. I called the state and informed them about the ele but they said would look into it but they really don't have any control over this. The building is large and has many sub panel boxes through out, all fpe. The main panel has cartridge fuses and runs very warm. I changed a cartridge fuse in it one day (100 amp)and by the time I had arrived there a half an hour had past. I used a puller to get the fuse out and I still could not hold the fuse due to how hot it was.
I worry about those residents there, many of their beds are up against recepticles with many things plugged into the recepticle. Should one of those wires be rubbed into a short and the fpe breaker fail to trip, someone or many people may be injured or worse. I am leaving my email address if anyone has any suggestions please email me

{Moderator's Note: Edited to remove personal contact information. If you wish to contact this person, please send a Private Message.} [/QUOTE]