When I was living in Fl., I used to have to adhere to the N.E.C. as well as the S.F.B.C.(south florida building code).
S.F.B.C. is in place due to hurricane ratings and the like.
On any service, you had to leave an external means of disconnect and the meter did not qualify as such.
This meant a main breaker mounted usually to the side of the meter can with an offset nipple before going on to the distribution panel inside.
In Michigan, I ran into something I had never seen in Fl., i.e. buss riser system.
The problem is that a buss riser system has no external means for disconnect unless you mount a shunt-trip which is never called for by the architect up here.
My father-in-law is a fireman for over 35 years and he says that in case of fire, the firemen sever the service drop near the pole. The main problem I see with this is that when it comes to an industrial fire in a small manufacturing facility, the fireman on the ladder might be cutting a 5000 amp service or even bigger while there is a load on it, with water spraying everywhere, in the dark, and trying to see through a possibly soot covered face shield while doing it.
Does this sound unsafe to anyone else?
