Cell Tower News: Tower fire and an OSHA counterpoint

Virginia tower catches fire

A cellphone tower behind a high school in Newport News, Va., caught fire this week. Maintenance workers were doing some welding work on the tower when they noticed the fire started in the insulation. The fire in the insulation ran through the wiring inside, then spread to the outside of the tower. By the time firefighters arrived on the scene, they found “a massive amount of fire at the base of the tower, with wires burning along the full length of the tower.”

The fire caused damage so extensive that the tower began to lean, with firefighters creating a perimeter around it in advance of a potential fall. With additional units called to the scene, the fire was extinguished a little more than an hour after their arrival. Fortunately no one was injured in the incident, just football practice in the nearby playing field was cancelled.

Verizon and Sprint, which were co-located on the tower, sent representatives to the scene shortly afterward to assess the damage to their respective equipment. Dominion Virginia Power also visited the site to disable all electricity to the tower to prevent further incident. Sprint released a statement, apologizing “for any inconvenience this may cause our customers, and [the company plans] to work aggressively to provide temporary coverage for the damaged cell equipment and eventually fully replace these resources in a timely matter.”

The specific cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Misplaced OSHA indignation

This weekly tower wrap strives to be a news source, with the occasional bit of humor or editorial commentary thrown in. Last week, RCR Wireless News reported that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration had asked for National Association of Tower Erector’s assistance in gathering safety data, since the number of people who filled out its information request was low. We also previously reported how one blogger became irate at the lack of participation from tower climbers. As a result, we received a rather pointed and indignant e-mail from a reader, saying we were misinformed on the situation.

This reader went on to explain how busy tower climbers are and that it was not widely known by ground-level employees that it was even going on, or if they did, it was incredibly close to deadline by the time they did, complaining that it wasn’t as if managers handed out forms to fill out and return. This person also found fault with OSHA’s efforts, claiming that any new safety rules brought about by this would be “authored by the big insurance companies, designed (in small print) to exonerate them in case of a accident.”

It was also implied that we do not understand or appreciate what climbers do, challenging us to walk a mile in their shoes, claiming an article was “condescending” and “judgmental.” It is as if this person is taking out his frustration about the industry, OSHA and everything else on those of us who are just trying to inform and educate climbers about what’s happening in the industry. RCR deeply respects the hard work of tower climbers and all they do to keep this industry going. When we write about something and it makes you angry, just think for a second whether that feeling stems from our coverage of an issue or the people making the decisions that put the news in motion that we want to inform readers about.