GROW-OP CAMPAIGN HEATS UP 30 OF 1,100 SUSPECTED SITES INSPECTED

A new Surrey campaign that uses power consumption rates to uncover
grow ops has located 30 so far.

Fire chief Len Garis said all of the suspected residences visited by
a team of Surrey fire and municipal inspectors (with Surrey RCMP
support) during the first weeks of the new campaign turned out to
have evidence of grow op activity and often unsafe wiring.

"We found two outside electrical meters that were absolutely fried,"
Garis said.

The first team started work in mid-January.

Garis said a second team of inspectors has been finishing its
training and will begin work next week, boosting the number of inspections.

"We hope to average 100 a month."

The fire department believes there are at least 1,100 Surrey
residences that could conceal grow ops because they have unusual or
excessive consumption patterns.

Under the Electrical Fire Safety Initiative (EFSI), fire crews with
municipal electrical inspectors issue inspection notices on homes
suspected of having grow operations.

If the homeowner doesn't allow an inspection within 48 hours, the
power is cut off.

A recently enacted law gives municipalities the power to demand
electrical consumption records from "an electricity distributor" such
as B.C. Hydro.

Homes with unusual electrical consumption records are given written
notice that an inspection will be carried out and owners or renters
are required by the law to allow a safety inspection of the premises.

A pilot program in Surrey that ran between March and June of 2005,
using a small five-person team of two officers, two firefighters and
an electrical inspector, uncovered 119 grow ops in 90 days.

That worked out to 94 per cent of the 126 houses with unusual or
excessive power consumption records looked at by the EFSI team.

Each case was processed in about four hours, including all the
research reports and site visits.

According to RCMP estimates, there are 20,000 grow ops in B.C. which
generate $7 billion in illegal revenues.