Fire protection failure at key exchanges: whistleblower - fireproof

A whistleblower revealed that the important Telstra exchange in Bendigo had few fire-fighting facilities and threatened the country's communications system.Sources say the city's major and smaller exchanges are at risk of a fire, similar to the closure of exchanges in southwest Victoria's telephone and Internet services in last November.According to sources, Telstra's fire fighting at the main communication center in short Street is "very lacking", and a fire on the main exchange will "destroy a considerable proportion of communication systems across Australia ", internet and 000 phone calls.
"There are a lot of satellite antennas on it that provide a lot of satellite communications," the source said ."."This is a fairly major passage between Melbourne, Sydney and other cities.The whistleblower also claimed that, on most of the smaller exchanges, fire alarms had been removed or deactivated and had been labeled "less important" in a letter from the building consultant Henry Group to the Metropolitan Fire Brigade on 2011.
Of the 10 exchanges in Bendigo, only the major exchanges, there are smoke detectors on Williamson Street, some of which have been broken, sources said.They said there were problems and deficiencies in the fire fighting on the two major exchanges."Exchanges without alerts rely on equipment failures;"If multiple devices fall, that's how they know there's a fire," the source said .
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"Only those who have a sense of protection smoke, that's all...There are no thermal detection devices and no fire extinguishing devices."Fire extinguishers on most exchanges have been removed.
They think they have to train the person if there is a fire extinguisher and show them how to use it.According to sources, a statement from Telstra on January 8 said that all exchanges were "protected by the state"of-the-The art system is fake.In some cases, it may take some time to detect smoke, the source said, and before an alarm is issued, the smoke needs to spread to an area with a working alarm.
A Telstra spokesperson told Bendigo advertisers that smoke and fire detection equipment was available on all major exchanges.The spokesman said the local government and the Australian telecom global operations center monitored fire detection equipment.An Australian Telecom spokesman said that Australia's construction regulations do not require smaller portable exchange sites (known as "SCAX" sites) to contain smoke and fire detection equipment due to their size.
"In general, these cabins are actually removable and there is only one small room," the spokesman said ."."BCA has different requirements for different types and sizes of buildings, so fire safety measures for many of our buildings vary depending on BCA requirements."Telstra is reviewing all the exchanges of the company after the Warrnambool fire in November.
The federal government is also reviewing the Warrnambool exchange.Stephen Conroy, minister of broadband, communications and digital economy, said in Bendigo this week that infrastructure in the region is often outdated and security issues should be raised with Telstra."Look, if there is a suggestion that there is not enough fire prevention on the Bendigo exchange, then this issue should be discussed with Telstra immediately," he said .
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"We live online most of the time on the mobile, and now the telephone network has become an important part of the infrastructure."So if it's going to be compromised and these exchange fires are relatively rare, then its impact is much greater than the network design."We don't want to see a repeat of what happened in Warrnambool.