Smart Meter Fires 🔥 & Hazards

What firefighters need to know

Here’s what we’ll learn in this article:

1. Five ways smart meters catch fire

2. What type of safety testing do smart meters undergo?

3. Why aren’t smart meters being removed?

4. Why does the utility say EMF from smart meters is safe?

5. What can we do?

6. What do firefighters know about EMF?

7. Brain scans done on firefighters next to cell towers

8. Other safety & privacy concerns

9. Recent lawsuit against California utility

“What I learned in Silicon Valley is that there is no moral component to technology unless humans insist that it be there.”

~ Jeffrey Armstrong

Imagine lighting a stick of dynamite, placing it by your house, and walking away. Now envision multiple sticks of dynamite buried in towns all throughout the country, not by terrorists, but by a government that does not know when these ticking time bombs will explode. This is the situation communities, families, and firefighters currently face all throughout the western world.

The explosive latched onto our buildings is the electric utility meter, otherwise known as a “smart” meter. Its fuse doesn’t emit a flame, and its components are as unstable as a firework in the hands of a five year old in a chemistry lab.

Not only are these electronic detonators an invisible threat, but their blaze burns more fiercely than a typical fire. Once alight, the conflagration from their lithium-ion batteries can quickly reach 932°F, and can burn as high as 2200 °F.¹

Why do smart meters catch fire?

Before the installation of smart meters most homes had analog meters, which were purely mechanical. Smart meters are a computer, with complex electronics using what is called a switch-mode power supply (SMPS). This type of power has to switch the electric current from AC to DC thousands of times per second in order to be considered an “energy-efficient” appliance. Unfortunately this same switching mechanism creates dirty electricity, which is a distorted electrical frequency that degrades electronics and is biologically-harmful.

Linear sine wave vs non-linear distorted wave

The complex computerized nature of smart meters creates more points of failure, and requires a more robust electrical infrastructure (which we don’t have due to an outdated power grid) to drive its parts. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has cited reports from around the world of fires believed to have been caused by smart meters that were faulty, incorrectly installed, or connected to circuits where there were unforeseen effects.²

Here are a few ways fires can be caused by smart meters:

❗ Electrical surge events: lighting strikes, trees falling on power lines cause surges, which are made more dangerous by the absence of surge arrestors (previously included in analog meters) in electronic meters.

❗ Arcing: the remote disconnect feature of smart meters employs two copper plates within the meter, which can create electric charge separation. Whenever charge separation occurs, an electric arc can occur. Arcing faults such as these can result in extremely high temperatures and may cause shrapnel from the meter and surrounding area to be hurled in excess of 700 miles per hour.

❗ Meter socket failures: logistically speaking the electric utility wants their employees, who are not trained electricians, to install meters as quickly as possible. Rushing a job can compromise safety. Socket failures may occur when installation deviates from established safety protocols.

❗ Component degradation: the connection point for the meter can cause high-resistance points that generate heat.

❗ Moisture: there have been numerous instances of faulty seals on smart meters, which can lead to more damage. Water and electricity don’t mix:

Utility companies and regulatory commissions have publicly denied these problems. Fire and electrical risks have not been disclosed to the public. The California Public Utilities Commission refused to release results of a 2013 preliminary investigation on smart meter fires and declined to investigate further. California fire officials have yet to launch a public investigation despite continuing problems.

Aren’t these meters tested for safety?

We are told by the utility and governments that smart meters undergo “rigorous safety testing.” You may be surprised to know that meters are being tested mostly for how accurately they can send out a signal to utility, and that the remote disconnect switch was installed correctly. Basically the utility is checking for functionality, not safety. Other safety hazards like voltage transients caused by the meter are not tested. These “rigorously-tested” meters are still burning up and exploding.

If they’re not safe, why isn’t there pressure to remove them?

Meters that have been indicated in building fires are not able to undergo forensic inspection. Utilities claim that these meters are their property, and remove them from the scene after a fire or a crime. This is akin to someone using a gun to shoot another person, and then stating that the weapon can’t be inspected since it’s their property.

Over a decade ago, an insurance industry expert and whistleblower

Norman Lambe

sounded the alarm about smart meters being removed from fire scenes prior to investigation. He has also written at length about the fire dangers of lithium ion batteries:

The lack of transparency is muddled even more with disinformation campaigns initiated by utilities like BC Hydro, who paid top Fire Chief Len Garis to write a report stating that smart meters actually prevent fires.

Source

There is also no code for smart meter fires. No code means that the smart meter fires officially don’t even exist.

Why does the utility say that EMF from meters is safe?

Like smart meters, our bodies are complex biological computers that run on electricity, and are negatively impacted by wanton frequencies from poorly-designed electronics. Just as dirty electricity from smart meters can degrade electrical components, so does this EMF impede the signalling of our nervous and immune system. We may not smell this type of inflammation in our body as we do the “fire” of a broken ankle, yet if left unchecked, its melee scours the green countryside of our once vital organs.

In the past when I called the electric utility to get the meter removed, I was told by them that “they emit very little radiation, less than a cell phone, and that these meters communicate with the utility for only 60 seconds per day.

Let’s break this statement, shall we?

1️⃣ What the utility does not say is that these 60 seconds are split up into 10,000 or more pulses. Each burst of radiation is about 4.5 milliseconds in duration, and occurs 24x7x365. Some meters emit up to 190,000 pulses per day.

Why is this important?

While the common notion is to think in terms of the quantity of radiation, it’s the quality that is just as critical. All life vibrates at a certain frequency. Our brains emit an alpha wave of 8 Hz while in meditation or sleep. While the “power” level of the alpha wave is not tremendous, its frequency alone can put us into an altered state of consciousness.

2️⃣ When it comes to radiation exposure, it’s not just about quantity, but quality. The type radiation that a cell phone emits is completely different. The electrical wavelength of a typical smart meter emits at 900 MHz, which is longer and can penetrate our walls and our organs. We’re simply not biologically-attuned to sustain continuous pulses of radiofrequency.

Ultimately it’s not about how often meters communicate with utility, but how frequently they create radiation that emits throughout the home.

3️⃣ Cell phones do not use a home’s electrical wiring to conduct pulses of radiofrequency (RF). Electric fields and RF then magnetize and exponentially increase the amount of ambient radiation in the home. Smart meters also create another form of EMF known as dirty electricity in the home due to the electronic components which use a switch mode power supply. We can turn off our cell phones, but we can’t turn off a smart meter.

What can we do about it?

If you have an analog meter (mechanical) DO NOT replace it with a smart meter. Some states allow you to opt-out, which is a form of extortion.

There are many other tactics you can try, which have worked for others. Eventually I was able to get the wireless meter removed at our previous place in Ontario, but it was replaced with a digital (non-wireless) smart meter. Analog meters are ideal, as digital meters also emit dirty electricity.

Depending on the area in which you live, you may be able to opt-out and get an analog replacement.

I wrote about our story and have included some more resources here:

Reducing EMF from smart meters

What do firefighters know about EMF?

Many firefighters in the US have been well aware of the biological blaze of non-ionizing radiation for quite some time. In California, firefighters are exempt from the forced placement of towers on their stations because of their strong opposition, related to health concerns of non-ionizing radiation.The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) has had an official position against cell towers on fire stations since 2004.³

A pilot study had been run that same year, which monitored California fire fighters working and sleeping in stations with towers. The study, conducted by Gunnar Heuser, M.D., PhD., focused on neurological symptoms of six fire fighters who had been working for up to five years in stations with cell towers. Those symptoms included slowed reaction time, lack of focus, lack of impulse control, severe headaches, anesthesia-like sleep, sleep deprivation, depression, and tremors.

Within a week of installation in one station most of the firefighters developed unusual symptoms of headaches, fatigue, insomnia, memory loss, confusion, nausea and weakness. After a time, these firefighters in stations with adjacent cell towers were found to have forgotten CPR or became lost responding to a fire in a city they grew up in.⁴ Is this the type of individual you want saving you from a burning building?

Neurologic symptoms in firefighters match brain SPECT scans:

In addition, there are legitimate concerns about cell towers, both catching fire spontaneously due to an electrical and mechanical failure, especially in California, Florida and Texas.⁵

Other reasons smart meters are a dumb idea

Aside from the immediate danger to life and property, there are a plethora of disadvantages to smart meters, which include the following:

❌ No energy savings

Residents across North America have complained that their energy bill actually went up after install. Consumer advocate Mindy Spatt claims that energy usage unexplicably rose for many residents. In Texas, California, Ontario, and all around the world bills have doubled and tripled. A survey by Toronto Hydro showed about 80 percent of people using smart meters saw increases, not decreases on their electric bills.

❌ No climate savings

Unlike their mechanical, analog predecessor, smart meters are computers with electronics. This requires not only more maintenance and sourcing of parts, but these devices are also obsolete. Instead of being replaced every twenty to thirty years like analog meters, electronic meters need to be replaced every five to seven years. This may be a win for the utility, but a great loss for the planet as harvested precious metals eventually wind up in landfills.

❌ Less secure

If you think your spouse turning off the heat in the middle of winter without telling you is bad (I’ve never done this of course) wait until a hacker or utility can turn your power off at will. Since these meters are digital, they’re connecting to the internet and are more susceptible to manipulation. Former CIA Director James Woolsey even said in an interview that “the so-called smart grid is a really stupid grid” due to its intrinsic vulnerability.

Hacking doesn’t just mean your data can be stolen. Since the remote disconnect switch can trigger fire through electric arc faults, whole communities can be set ablaze with a keystroke.

❌ Less free

A Congressional research report cited that smart meters are a violation of the 4th amendment, which maintains that an individual has a right to retreat into one’s own home and be free of government intrusion.

In essence all homeowners who have smart meters are living like the mafia, with a universal wire tap listening in on everything they do. We could always turn up the loud furnace, like Tony Soprano when he wanted to have a discrete conversation, but then again we’d be feeding the smart meter.

The devil is in the data

Why did the electric utility stop using analog meters, if they were working so well? There are many reasons, but the primary motivator was profit. Revenue from electric usage is minimal compared to the amount that can be made from data harvesting, which is is a trillion dollar industry. The internet-of-things (IOT) industry is forecast to be a $ 12,600,000,000,000 dollar industry by 2030.⁶

Where do we go from here?

More people around the analog world are rising up to take back their basic human right to privacy. Let us support them by spreading this information:

Privacy protections are facing a critical test as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and community advocates in California press forward with a lawsuit to dismantle what they describe as an illegal and biased surveillance operation run by Sacramento’s public electric utility.

[SOURCE] Smart Meter Science by

Patricia Burke

:

“In a legal filing submitted in July 2025, the EFF laid out evidence that the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), which serves more than 650,000 customers, has spent over a decade monitoring detailed home electricity data and funneling it to police without a warrant. The organization calls this an unconstitutional ‘dragnet surveillance’ program that unlawfully invades household privacy on a massive scale.

“This case is about Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s…dragnet surveillance of SMUD customers’ homes using sensitive and confidential energy usage information,” the brief begins. “The decade-long surveillance violates the California Constitution and a state privacy statute.”

EFF alleges that SMUD has routinely handed over customer information to local police departments, including names, addresses, and usage history, without any individualized suspicion or judicial oversight. ‘SMUD has turned over…the names, addresses, and electrical consumption information of more than 33,000 customers through a zip code list,’ the brief states.

Rather than respond to specific criminal investigations, SMUD analysts proactively generate and send “lists, opinions, and tips” to law enforcement, the lawsuit claims. These lists are sometimes based on entire ZIP codes, resulting in thousands of homes being flagged. In July 2023 alone, SMUD sent data on over 10,000 customers.

---

👉 Support our work by becoming a premium subscriber.

Just 17 cents per day.

---

As AI consciousness evolves, the technological landscape and field of battle is rapidly shifting. AI increases productivity for some, while also seamlessly severing the ability of the human mind to maintain original thought.

We’ve outsourced our intelligence to computers instead of exploring past the “ten percent of our brain” that we’ve been told is our maximum hard drive capacity. We’ve surrendered to technologies we're told are smarter than us, while forgetting that wisdom rules the day. A fox may be clever, but the wise turtle lives to see a new world reborn on the back of its shell, calloused with the resilient technology of common sense.

Let us erupt the electricity of our heart into the stratosphere of a consciousness alight with human intelligence, and douse the flames of tyranny with a flick of the switch.

Do you find these articles informative?

If so, please consider becoming a paid subscriber for under 17¢ a day.

We don’t believe in paywalls, but this is how we make a living, so any support is appreciated. 🙏

---

Additional resources:

We highly recommend watching this ground-breaking documentary, which also features

Paul Harding

testing a smart meter:

Check out The Power Couple Bookshop - dedicated to making us relearn from our ancestors!

Support us the old fashioned way!

Send us an email to info@thepowercouple.ca if you’d like to send us other forms of payment, including 🐌 mail!

1. Electronic Frontier Foundation: "When Smart Meters Turn into Spy Tools"

2. Expert Letter on Risks of Smart Meters, Fires

3. https://www.iaff.org/cell-tower-radiation/

4. https://mdsafetech.org/2019/09/28/firefighters-fighting-fires-and-now-cell-towers/

5. (Anderson et al 2020)

6. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-the-internet-of-things