When investigating a fire especially in a home that has a security/fire etc system that failed to transmit. Be aware many of the new phone technologys are not letting alarms transmit properly such as voip, digial cable phone etc.
and many home owners are no longer having there systems monitored because they do not want to pay for extra equiptment for it to work.
However many home owners are getting a discount on there homeowners insurance because they have a monitored system which could get sticky at claims time.
Many changes in buisness phone lines too are also causing problems as well such as Ip phones and T1 phone service.
I see nothing but massive litigation comming out of these new phone technolgies
when systems fail to transmit and it is only going to get worse as the sunset law allows Analog Cellular phone service to be shut off after next year.which many systems use as a back up means and must now be switched to digital this also goes for active GPS system like On Star* older units will not work and will need upgraded to digital cellular.
I am working on a white paper regarding all these new technolgies and there potential impact on investigations and will let you know when it is avalable.
I have already seen several fires were 911 was called and digital technology failed to deliver.