Dave Kalikitis tests a light standard at the corner of Robson and Seymour people, Found, Power

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Dave Kalikitis tests a light standard at the corner of Robson and Seymour
Lara FominoffElectrical Hazards Found in Common Vancouver Areas
Up to 240 volts found coming from some light standards
Lara Fominoff Feb 15, 2011 21:03:08 PM
0    VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) - It's frightening to people who are told about it.

A company from the U-S that's  in Vancouver doing some voluntary testing, is finding a lot of electrical hazards in some very common areas.

"Power Survey Company" is based in New Jersey and was hired by the city of Seattle to find out whether there were any significant hazards there, and some were found.

But when Chief Engineer Dave Kalikitis and company President Tom Catanese came to Vancouver, they were, well, shocked by what they found.

Kalikitis says they found quite a few energized structures in common areas,  like light standards on Vancouver streets.

"In 2004, a young woman named Jodie Lain was electrocuted walking down a street in Manhattan. Her dog stepped on an energized manhole cover and the dog got a shock. She reached down to help the dog, and she herself was electrocuted. As a result of that, there was a call (to us) to do some of the development work. So we developed this system in conjunction with the utility in New York and since then we've been operating these systems, building these systems, and advancing this technology."

He says although it's rare for that to happen, it's not a hazard that you can recognize with the eye. Lain was killed by a 57 volt shock.

While on a tour in Downtown Vancouver, it didn't take long for Kalikitis and Catanese to find a light standard emitting 112.7 volts, at the corner of Robson and Seymour.

Passersby were astounded. "(I'm) Walking around with my daughter. I mean what if she wasn't in the stroller, and I was just holding her hand? She could reach out and touch that. That's scary!"

Another light standard on Terminal Street in near the Stadium Skytrain station was emitting 230 volts.

Kalikitis says it's the equivalent of sticking your finger in a light socket. He says it happens when infrastructure deteriorates and generally it's a cheap and easy thing to fix. The information they've gathered on their first trip to Vancouver is being passed on to the City.