b10010011Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
Bellingham, WA Reviews:
 ·Comcast Formerl..
| I'll give up my POTS line... When you pry it from my cold dead hands. 
Seriously, I have Comcast so my internet service goes down every time the wind blows over 10 MPH. So VOIP and Comcast digital phone service is too unreliable.
The last time we had a major emergency the cellphone towers were jammed. The local radio stations were begging people to stay off their cellphones because the emergency services needed them.
Through out all this my POTS line was there and working. | |
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 Reviews:
·Charter
 ·Clearwire Wireless
1 edit | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... A landline sounds better, until a bad disaster happens.
If a fire is in your house, try calling for help. You'll get electricuted.
Oh, you don't have a cell? Then enjoy watching your house burn down.
I have a backup generator, vonage, cable internet, and iphone 3g. I can surf the web and make calls when everyone's power is out, and I can phone for help in case a fire happened.
Your landline do any of that? | |
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 | b10010011Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
Bellingham, WA Reviews:
·Comcast Formerl..
| Re: I'll give up my POTS line... said by Metatron2008:I can surf the web and make calls when everyone's power is out, and I can phone for help in case a fire happened. Your landline do any of that? Um... yes, my POTS line can do all that.
As far as getting electrocuted when your house is on fire... That has to be the biggest bunch of bullsh*t I have read and this is an election year. | |
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| | Reviews:
·Charter
·Clearwire Wireless
1 edit | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... I guess it depends on the persons ignorance and how much the house is on fire.
But hey, if you wanna be an idiot, use something that sends any type of current during a fire.
Oh, and did you just tell me your LANDLINE can surf the web when lights are out?
I assume it can also give you phone service away from home? | |
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| | | b10010011Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
Bellingham, WA | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... Let's see land lines have been around for what, a hundred years or so..
Where are all the stories of people being electrocuted? | |
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| | | b10010011Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
Bellingham, WA Reviews:
·Comcast Formerl..
2 edits | said by Metatron2008:. Oh, and did you just tell me your LANDLINE can surf the web when lights are out? Um, the power for my phone is sent down the copper by the phone company, it works just fine during power outages.
A dial up account and a modem built in to my laptop, that runs on a battery. | |
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| | | b10010011Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
Bellingham, WA Reviews:
·Comcast Formerl..
| said by Metatron2008:I assume it can also give you phone service away from home? I never said I did not have a cellphone, moron. | |
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| | | | | | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... Ever heard of the edit button? Or too old for that? | |
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| | | | Yeah, especially if you use a cordless phone  | |
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| | | | I'll tell you a 100% absolute true story of how a family was saved by their landline telephone.
One night the father is heading to bed and as he flips on the bathroom light it flashes and goes dark. He figures the bulb burned and leaves it till tomorrow. He heads to bed and falls right asleep. The daughter stays up late and calls a few friends on the phone.
While she's talking around 1AM the phone goes dead. So she goes to check out the other phones. When she walks out the room she smells smoke. So she opens up her parents door and tells them that she thinks there's a fire. They all run out of the house onto the front lawn where they see smoke coming from the attic. They had a neighbor call the fire department (right around the corner and down the road) and they got the fire out before it burnt the house down.
What happened was the light fixture popped a short which ignited insulation which smoldered until eventually the area caught. The phoneline just so happened to come into the house right there and the phone wiring was the first to melt from the fire.
Had it not been for their landline they'd have lost the house or their lives. | |
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1 edit | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... Your basing safety on phone lines being in your house?
Just the simple fact that they are there?
Thats beyond any level of ignorance I've ever seen. You may as well next tell me God saved your house, moron. | |
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| | | | Reviews:
·Charter
·Clearwire Wireless
1 edit | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... I suppose in ignorance land you guys have orgies with your landlines and never hafta worry about knowing where things are at night in case stuff like fires or break ins happen, eh?
I suppose you praise Jesus and put your faith that he'll save you should something happen? Or maybe you praise some other religion?
I suppose you keep your door unlocked out of 'good faith', and you never keep a cell phone or gun in your dresser IN CASE someone ever tries something on ya?
Because in real life, that can happen anywhere. | |
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| | | | | | You've made it clear you don't possess the ability to engage in meaningful discussion. You clearly don't understand what the adults are saying.
Go on and pray for your VOIP line to save you in most possible emergency conditions. I'll care not a whit if the 911 center can't find you. | |
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|  quetwoThat VoIP GuyPremium
join:2004-09-04
East Lansing, MI | Your phone won't electricute you if your house is on fire. You may die of the fire(or smoke,etc), but your phone has nothing to do with it (unless it was your phone that caused the fire). POTS is low-voltage.
Now, you are correct that a cell phone is more mobile. But that is not the argument. If your area looses power for three hours, will you still have phone service? Did your cell phone carrier have enough battery? Does your ISP/Cable company? At the pole? The internet/cable industry is unregulated. They are not required to provide service in the event of a natural (or other) disaster. The phone company is on the hook for these services.
Remember the big black-out in the NE a few years back? Cell phones, internet, cable, everything went out. Landlines stayed up all three days we didn't have power. | |
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| | Reviews:
·Charter
·Clearwire Wireless
| Re: I'll give up my POTS line... Okay, if your talking a non electrical, old type phone, then you have a point.
Your also cluing me in to your relative ages here.
Even with that in mind, cell phone service is about to become like digital cable. 3g evolution and 4g both plan seamless handing off across cell towers. Any emergency across areas won't be an issue.
Of course, this requires that you get a 3g or 4g phone... | |
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| | | b10010011Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
Bellingham, WA Reviews:
·Comcast Formerl..
1 edit | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... said by Metatron2008:Of course, this requires that you get a 3g or 4g phone... 3g also requires that you live within a couple miles of the freeway. If not it's NO-G.
We still have operating ANALOG cellphone towers in our area. | |
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| beaups
join:2003-08-11
Hilliard, OH | "If a fire is in your house, try calling for help. You'll get electricuted."
what??? dumbuest thing I've heard today. thanks for the laugh, I needed it. | |
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| | Reviews:
·Charter
·Clearwire Wireless
1 edit | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... Yeah yeah, old people, laugh at my assumption that you didn't have a rotary phone.
Isn't it time for bingo?
And yes, before you mention it, dial tone can be low voltage too. I was making the assumption that you had phones that needed to be plugged in. | |
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| | |  JammerMan79Premium,VIP
join:2004-05-13
Prince George, BC
kudos:10 | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... wow.. someone's giving the "youngsters" a bad name...
to all the "old people" on this board, I hereby apologize on behalf of all the "younger" members.
WOW... Why the hell would you stay INSIDE your house to call about a fire? That's what freaking neighbours are for.
--
I may work for, but do not necessarily represent the views and beliefs of TELUS Communications. | |
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| | | | Reviews:
·Charter
·Clearwire Wireless
1 edit | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... Alright, let's give examples here:
First, neighbors today... Considering how many people aren't exactly trustworth, you'd need someone you trusted.
Then you talk about going to their house, knocking on their door.
What if their at work? Asleep?
Seems like an awful gamble to make while your house burns to the ground.
Lets give more examples here. A phone that's plugged into the wall and has any sort of lcd screen could electrocute you.
But I assume we are not talking about any phone like that. | |
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| | | | | b10010011Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
Bellingham, WA | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... You must live in a horrible area, I know all my neighbors by name. | |
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·Charter
·Clearwire Wireless
1 edit | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... Even then, your putting your houses future on faith that they currently are there and can answer the door.
You realize that unless your house is brick, the time it would take to run out the house, get to your neighbor, knock, him open the door, you race in, call 911, your house would be halfway burnt?
Esp. if it was already engulfed when you woke up. | |
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| | | | | | | JammerMan79Premium,VIP
join:2004-05-13
Prince George, BC
kudos:10 | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... said by Metatron2008:Even then, your putting your houses future on faith that they currently are there and can answer the door. then you break their window and place a damn phone call!
if your house in on fire are you really going to search for your cell before you get the HELL OUT???
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I may work for, but do not necessarily represent the views and beliefs of TELUS Communications. | |
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| | | | | | | b10010011Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
Bellingham, WA Reviews:
·Comcast Formerl..
| said by Metatron2008:Even then, your putting your houses future on faith that they currently are there and can answer the door. WTF did people do before cellphones?
Why haven't all of our cities burned to the ground already? | |
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| | | | | | | | | | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... Because fires don't appear at an everyday rate in cities. | |
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| | | | | JammerMan79Premium,VIP
join:2004-05-13
Prince George, BC
kudos:10 | buddy.. you're talking about a FREAKING HOUSE FIRE!
unless you, bubba and the car on your lawn are feuding I don't know of anyone who's neighbour wouldn't call 911 in this instance..
Can you really make this any more ridiculous?
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I may work for, but do not necessarily represent the views and beliefs of TELUS Communications. | |
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·Charter
·Clearwire Wireless
| Re: I'll give up my POTS line... Yeah, once again have you done any scientific testing on the rate that fire burns?
Even if your neighbor was to open the door, at the time it took you to reach him, depending on the amount of fire already burning, your house could be long gone. | |
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| | | | | | | JammerMan79Premium,VIP
join:2004-05-13
Prince George, BC
kudos:10 | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... said by Metatron2008:Yeah, once again have you done any scientific testing on the rate that fire burns? Even if your neighbor was to open the door, at the time it took you to reach him, depending on the amount of fire already burning, your house could be long gone. if the house is gone in the extra 45 seconds to get your neighbour to open the door then what's the big rush... the fire truck's won't get their in time anyways.
Funchords is completely right.. get the hell out, then call for help... you don't search around the burning house for any phone, cell or landline
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I may work for, but do not necessarily represent the views and beliefs of TELUS Communications. | |
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| | | | |  funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5 | said by Metatron2008:Lets give more examples here. A phone that's plugged into the wall and has any sort of lcd screen could electrocute you. Explain that, please.
Meanwhile,
1. getting everyone out of the house -- including you -- is first priority, Save life before property. Call 9-1-1 when you're out.
2. it's not the fire that kills people or even the smoke so much, it's the invisible poisons from burning fabric and plastic and other materials
3. if you don't rehearse these things in your head, you'll panic
--
Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- Hillsboro, Oregon
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| | | | | | | JammerMan79Premium,VIP
join:2004-05-13
Prince George, BC
kudos:10 | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... again, no one here has said they won't have a cell phone, only that in an emergency a land line is a better choice.
In your example most normal people won't have their cell with them as they would do the intelligent thing and get out.
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I may work for, but do not necessarily represent the views and beliefs of TELUS Communications. | |
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| | | | | | | | | | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... Fires are emergencies, and even the public safety department says a cell phone is better in a fire.
I guess now that a fire doesn;'t count because it's one thing where a cell phone is better then a landline? | |
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See 6 replies to this post |
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| | | | | | | | | | Wanna hear something ironic?
A friend was asked by a firema about if telephones could catch fire. Apparently a Cox cable box had burst into flames. You see they have to take 90VAC and transform it to line curret at the house. Aparently one of the transformers blew and caught the house on fire.
Sounds so much safer than POTS. | |
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| | | | | | | funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5 | First off, drop the hostility. You get no points for being right, nor do you lose points for being wrong.
Secondly, you didn't explain how using a phone in a fire will electrocute you. (It doesn't matter. You should not phone from inside a burning building, anyway; regardless, it's clear that you don't understand something. Might as well learn, right? We're all here to do that.)
Finally, nothing that was said in the fireman's video disagrees with anything that I said.
In a fire, using the phone is generally the wrong move. You probably won't get electrocuted, but it has a strong chance delaying your fast exit from harm. Calling from outside of the building -- regardless if its from a neighbors house or your own cell phone -- is the right move.
Sure, the faster the response, the better, but a fast response is no guarantee. In a recent federal study, nearly half of fires that escape the room or floor of origin had responses of under 5 minutes, and more than half that escaped the building of origin had a response time of less than 6 minutes. With odds that bad, it makes no sense to stay in the building to try and work a phone that might not work anyway.
In a fire, the plastic that keeps the tiny colored telephone wires separated may melt. If they do, the metal touches together, creating a short circuit. This will prevent you from dialing 9-1-1. The risk isn't electrocution -- those higher-risk A.C. wires are seldom near the telephone wires. The risk is that you delay getting out of the building and eventually succumb to the poisons, smoke, or flames as a result. You shouldn't even try.
We both seem to be in agreement -- Get out and call from outside.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- Hillsboro, Oregon
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| | | | | | | | Reviews:
·Charter
·Clearwire Wireless
| Re: I'll give up my POTS line... Sorry, I get slightly upset when people say they do stuff to be safe but in reality aren't.
Cells are good for your house caving in, landlines are good for being trapped.
Honestly though, what really bothers me is knowing that if something happened, said fool would have nothing to do. I guess what really bothers me is ignorance.
Sorry, I'll quit being so hostile. You made sense, I just get upset when someone does something that could hurt them. | |
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| | | | | | | You're so awfully and painfully off on the technology you're discussing I recommend you just walk away. | |
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JammerMan79Premium,VIP
join:2004-05-13
Prince George, BC
kudos:10 | »www.station30.com/firesafety.html
WHAT IF A FIRE BREAKS OUT IN YOUR HOME
We hope it never happens to you, but here is some good advice to follow if it does:
(From Lt. Tony Lima, Engine 30 "B" Shift) Get out, FAST! Don't worry about your material possessions. They can be replaced. You can't.
»www.ci.rosenberg.tx.us/fire/faqs.htm
What should I do if I hear a smoke detector's alarm sound?
Never ignore the sound.
Have an escape plan
Feel if the door is hot.
Crawl on the floor.
Meet at a pre-arranged spot outside the home.
Call the fire department from a neighbor's home.
Never go back inside a burning building.
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I may work for, but do not necessarily represent the views and beliefs of TELUS Communications. | |
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See 16 replies to this post |
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JammerMan79Premium,VIP
join:2004-05-13
Prince George, BC
kudos:10
2 edits | Personally I couldn't give two shits about what's beside my bed if there's a fire. I'll grab my family and bolt. Let the house burn for all I care, it can be replaced. Even if my neighbours hate me they'll still call 911 if only to save their houses from being damaged.
BTW the best way to save yourself/house if the house is on fire... get a monitored alarm with built in fire/smoke/heat sensors. That's right, a monitored alarm that triggers a fire truck response when it goes off. You'll need a pots line though. That way you get the hell out and the truck is on the way before you can pick up your cell or get the neighbour up.
Also, for someone so new to the site it's pretty amazing that your coming out with full cannon's blazing. Reading some of your other posts I'm inclined to believe that you're just bating us all for fun. It's really hard to believe that you're really this ignorant (to use one of your favorite words)
edit: post meant for Metatron2008
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I may work for, but do not necessarily represent the views and beliefs of TELUS Communications. | |
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JammerMan79Premium,VIP
join:2004-05-13
Prince George, BC
kudos:10 | I sent a message to the »usfirefighters.net website asking for advice about this issue.
The below is my original message and their response (I sent the same message to other sites as well):
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The correct answer would be "a". Hard as it is to imagine, taking a few extra seconds to get anything can mean the difference between getting out and getting killed.
Also, cell phones used to dial 9-1-1 are usually routed to a general answering station. In our area that's the State Highway Patrol. They then transfer the call to the proper jurisdiction's alarm office based on information given by the caller. In my exereince this generally adds at least 60 seconds to getting help, and sometimes sends that help to the wrong location. A similar process is used for homes using VOIP, if they haven't properly registered their number. Calls made from a hard wired land line on an area's main TelCo go directly to the proper alarm office.
Guy K.
USFF Admin
p.s. - yes, you can share this response
On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 11:12 PM, **** wrote:
I'm a member of www.dslreports.com
Recently there has been a discussion on fire safety.
If there's a fire in your home do you:
a: exit the building as quickly as you can safely do so and then contact the fire dept./911 from a neighbor
or
b: get your cell phone and then exit as quickly and safely as you can. Then call 911 from the cell phone.
Would I be able to post your response to this message?
Thank you
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This message was sent via the messaging system on US FireFighters Blog.
»usfirefighters.net/b2log/index.php?blog=2
You can edit your profile to not reveive mails through a form:
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I may work for, but do not necessarily represent the views and beliefs of TELUS Communications. | |
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| funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5 | Re: I'll give up my POTS line... Good info, and I don't disagree. But remember that 20% of your neighbors don't have landlines. So their cell phones will still go to the PSAP for cell phones in their area (which is the state police or highway patrol in many cases).
As to the wrong ALI (location) information, most of us do know our address and no dispatcher will rely on the ALI information over the spoken and repeated address.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- Hillsboro, Oregon
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