POT HOUSES POSE NEW DANGERS FOR FIREFIGHTERS

Cambridge firefighters are getting an education - a drug education.

It's a matter of safety for the 136 members of the Cambridge Fire
Department, after the rash of marijuana home grows found in the city
brought them face to face with hazards like dangerous amateur wiring and
chemical fertilizers that are both toxic and explosive.

"We have to change our training," said Deputy Chief Bill Chesney.

"What we think is a normal combustible residential fire could have the
added risks associated with these grow operations and that changes how we
would attack it or conduct search and rescue."

A fire nearly broke out in one of two pot houses raided in the upscale
Clemens Mill subdivision in north Galt this week. As investigators entered
the basement of 25 Anglerock Dr. Tuesday, an unused light fixture sparked
and began smoking because the amount of electricity surging through it was
more than it was meant to handle.

A common feature with indoor pot-growing operations is the way growers
bypass the hydro meter with crude wiring - some using plumbing clamps. The
heat lamps used to simulate sunlight indoors draw enormous amounts of
electricity.

The high-voltage lamps and amateur wiring have sparked fires in two local
home-grow operations - in Cambridge and Kitchener - since December 2000.
The Anglerock house would have been the third to go up in flames if it were
not for the timing of the pre-dawn police raid.

Hydro officials accompanied police on their first walk-about inside the
home grow - as they now routinely do to ensure the houses are safe for
officers to proceed with their investigation. As a result, the power was
shut off immediately after the fixture blew and the fire was snuffed before
it did anything more than char the basement framing.

"It's likely a fire would have occurred. That thing was smoldering for a
while," said Inspector Dave Doherty, of the department's fire prevention
office.

Doherty examined the Anglerock house after police and hydro officials.
Given the number of pesticides and fertilizers inside, he's grateful
firefighters weren't called to fight a blaze there because they would have
gone in blind.

"Firefighters are the first line of defence. We need to know what we're
dealing with," he said.

The chemicals inside would have made the house fire more like fighting an
industrial blaze, requiring different tactics. Electrical fires also
require a different approach and create the added risk of electrocution, he
said.

In addition to the fire risk, police and firefighters in Waterloo Region
are being warned to watch for booby traps in home grows. Deadly devices
were discovered at home-grow operations in the Hamilton, Tillsonburg and
London areas.

They included trip wires, detonation devices and steel doors hooked to live
hydro wires. In Hamilton, the drug squad was doused with a noxious spray of
mixed solvents that affected their ability to breathe and drove them
outside to fresh air.

Meanwhile, a 39-year-old man was in a Kitchener courtroom yesterday where
he was formally charged in connection with a pot raid at 15 Chamberlin Dr.
Wednesday. Phuang Van Vu, of Brampton, was released and ordered to be back
in court next month. A 46-year-old woman is facing several charges after
the police raid Tuesday on nearby 25 Anglerock Dr.