Michael, Last night I sent the message below to the contact email for the chapel, and got their response. I would like to forward this to the list, in order to guide our collective behavior. How do you advise that I proceed? Allan
-----Original Message----- Hi gang. Contact me off list if any questions or concerns. We can probably find these folks' home and their system if we want to, we are very close. But they have gone to lengths to protect household privacy, so please let's not make it public here. Hello Allan: Thanks for your email and your kind words, and I appreciate your attention to our recent solar module-related fire. I am not the person responsible for the Wind-Sun posting--my husband posted the photos and inquiry--but our hats are off to you and your associates for quickly finding and correlating my Examiner article with the Wind-Sun forum. Though the expertise and opinions of your colleagues have been very educational for us, we are extremely disturbed by the vigilante tone of the postings and comments and we wish to make it clear that attempts to interfere in our situation--and that includes unsolicited contact with us or our local authorities--will be dealt with immediately and harshly. I am a journalist, public official, and a Community Emergency Response Team member; in the course of my professional and volunteer duties I work closely with fire personnel, law and code enforcement, and City/State/County/Federal authorities. We are fully aware of the agencies that need to be involved, reports that need to be filed, and procedures that need to be followed as a result of this event. The situation is very complex and you do not have the entire story, and we are very upset about defamatory statements being made about us and our installer. Our installer is NOT criminally liable, nor the ultimate or only responsible party here; investigations are currently pending concerning liability and subrogation, and libelous statements from people outside the situation endanger our ability to substantiate and recover our losses. I am sorry to have to say this, but if we find that anyone from your forum has improperly attempted to inform or influence these investigations or the companies/agencies involved, we will prosecute to the full extent of the law. I hope you will make this clear not only on your boards but to any who have contacted you "off list" as well. We make no secret of our location or identities--we have nothing to hide--and perhaps when this case is closed we will be able to answer your questions and provide more specific information about this incident. I have a vested interest in consumer safety and you can be assured that I will be writing about this incident in detail once it is fully behind us (we hope with a happily-and-safely solar-powered ending to the story.) However, we will diligently protect our financial interests and our privacy while this case is active, and we hope you and your associates will recognize and respect our need to manage this situation ourselves. We are grateful for your industry's devotion to safety and professionalism, but tampering with our investigative process is inappropriate and will cause us further harm. Please be patient while we sort it out, and we we look forward to a sunnier future both for ourselves and our sustainable home. Kind Regards, Elizabeth Oakes ------------------------- http://www.MarriageToGo.Com Mobile Marriage Licensing and Wedding Officiant Services (Los Angeles, CA) 310.288.6658 marr...@marriagetogo.com skypename: marriagetogo.com "Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence." --Erich Fromm Elizabeth Oakes is the National Wedding Examiner column @ Examiner.Com: http://www.examiner.com/x-432-Wedding-Examiner Come be a friend/fan of MarriageToGo on http://www.Facebook.com! Allan Sindelar wrote: > Hello, > I want to express my condolences regarding your solar panel fire. I > share your relief that the fire was so quickly extinguished, and that > you have continued to maintain such a positive attitude about solar in > spite of your experience. Thank you for that; it shows maturity and courage. > > There has been quite a bit of discussion of your solar panel fire among > professional PV installers in the U.S. Much of the character of the > discussion mirrors the responses on the Wind-Sun forum you posted to, > but you might value the rest: > _http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/2009/sub ject.html#start_; > scroll down to the topic "panel fire". > > The general consensus is that the installer was essentially criminal and > should be prosecuted and put out of business, based on observations of > the installation and photos you posted. The panels were unlisted, > unsafe, and of poor quality, possibly home-made. Nearly all modern > panels (actually properly called modules) have tempered glass toward the > sun. Nobody had seen this before; many of us fear that substandard work > will give our industry a black eye. > > One long-time and well-respected installer in SoCal apparently connected > the before photo with the same photo on your weddings-to-go site; thus I > was able to contact you this way. This isn't intended to violate your > privacy, but more to let you know that this is actually a Big Deal to > solar professionals. I suspect that you have a lot of support out there > in the industry for resolving this in a good way, and protecting quality > installation standards. > > Thank you. > > Allan Sindelar > ___allan_(at)_positiveenergysolar.com_ > <mailto:al...@positiveenergysolar.com> > NABCEP certified solar PV installer > Positive Energy, Inc. > 3201 Calle Marie > Santa Fe NM 87507 > 505 780-2738 cell > _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Options & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
