March 19, 2024
127. Revolutionizing Home Emergency Preparedness with Firefighter Andrew Leith and the Dwell Secure App
How prepared are you if a disaster strikes your home? Andrew Leith is a seasoned firefighter with 25 years under his belt, who's observed firsthand the chaos that ensues when homeowners are caught unprepared. Andrew introduces us to Dwell Secure, an innovative app designed to keep essential home information organized and accessible. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in safeguarding their home and loved ones. Andrew's insights not only highlight the importance of preparedness but also offer a unique perspective on the intersection of technology and home safety. So, buckle up for an informative deep dive into how Dwell Secure could revolutionize the way we think about home readiness.
Here’s how you can follow or reach Andrew Leith:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andrew.leith.9
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-leith-42093941/
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Website: https://homeownersbeaware.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-siegal/
If you'd like to reach me for any reason, here's the link to my contact form:
https://homeownersbeaware.com/contact
Here's the link to the trailer for the documentary film I'm making: Built to Last: Buyer Beware.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
George Siegal (00:00):
One of the most important things we can all do
is make sure we are prepared ifa disaster hits our home.
When it does, there's a bigdifference in how things go for
those that had a plan and thosethat did not.
That includes knowing your home, where the gas and water
shutoffs are and the emergencyservice phone numbers, and you
can't start making that planright before the disaster
(00:22):
happens.
My guest today is Andrew Leith,a 25-year firefighter who saw a
void that most of us have andis doing something about it.
He created an app called DwellSecure, and it will give you a
central place of organizationfor all your important home
information, so when thatdisaster happens, you are ready.
I'm George Siegal, and this isHomeowners Be Aware, the podcast
(00:45):
that teaches you everything youneed to know about being a
homeowner.
Andrew, thank you so much forjoining me today.
Andrew Leith (00:52):
Thank you, george, I'm happy to be on your podcast
.
George Siegal (00:56):
Now you're talking, you're working on
something really interestingcalled the Dwell Secure app, and
I want to start off talkingabout that.
Tell me about the app and whatyour goal is with it.
Andrew Leith (01:09):
So it came from.
I was paired up with a publicinformation officer I worked for
I have 25 years in the firedepartment, and she asked if I
could teach some disasterpreparedness classes.
So I taught several and I hadthe first four classes that I
taught.
I explained the 911 system, howit works who's coming when you
(01:33):
call 911 and then I explainedthat if a disaster happens,
there won't be enough resourcesto go around, and people did not
like that answer.
So then I would ask who hereknows how to shut off their gas
if you have natural gas flowinginside of your home, and out of
(01:54):
the first four classes there wastwo people that knew where the
gas meters were.
There was one person that knewhow to shut it off.
So that's where the idea camefrom.
So it allows you to markutilities or resources inside of
(02:15):
your home or office or anydwelling, and then you mark it
on a satellite image of yourproperty and you store photos
and information regarding thatresource.
George Siegal (02:28):
Now I love it.
I think it sounds fantastic,but I do have a lot of questions
about it, the first one beingwhen I live in Florida, when
Hurricane Michael hit in thepanhandle, one of the first
things that happened was Verizonwent down, so that's your phone
carrier.
So now, if I'm relying on thisapp to help me with all those
(02:51):
things and my phone goes out,what happens?
Andrew Leith (02:55):
So all of the information entered in the app
will be stored on your deviceand in the cloud.
So when you get a new deviceyou download all the information
.
If your device gets cut offfrom all services, you will at a
minimum have the informationand the pictures, the satellite
(03:18):
map.
They still can't tell me ifit's going to work or not, but
at a minimum you'll see whereyou pinned it on your property
and the picture of what you needto activate to shut off
utilities.
George Siegal (03:32):
Now I think that's huge.
Now it's interesting too.
You're not just like a guy whowas a truck driver and then
decided to do a baking app.
I mean, you're in thefirefighting business, so you
know about this stuff firsthand,and when a disaster hits,
people don't think straight.
Andrew Leith (03:50):
No, definitely not .
I've seen many cases whererational people and that's what
I tell people in my class aswell as, during a disaster, good
people will do bad things totake care of their loved ones,
so it's something to be aware of.
I have food and water and waysto purify water, because I am
(04:15):
not going to be in the grocerystore wrestling with other
fathers trying to feed theirchildren, so that is one of the
motivating factors for me tohave supplies at my house.
George Siegal (04:29):
Yeah, another thing too.
I mean, with my podcast and allthe things I've learned about
being a homeowner, I would stillconsider myself somewhat
unprepared for a lot of things,and when you said one person in
the class, that was actuallyhigh, I thought it would be
nobody.
I mean, sure, when you're doingyour walkthrough, when you're
moving into your house, theyexplain this stuff to you, but I
(04:49):
don't remember any of it, and Iimagine a lot of people are in
that boat.
Andrew Leith (04:54):
Exactly so.
My wife.
She's currently a schoolteacher.
Before she was a school teacher, she was an attorney.
Before she was an attorney, shewas a real estate agent.
Before that, she played sevenyears of professional soccer.
She can do anything, but shehas never had to know where
(05:14):
these resources are, nor caredto know.
So she's.
I think in the United Statesspecifically, we've done a very
good job at call 911.
If you need help, call 911.
And as a person who hops on therig and shows up when you need
help, we want you to call 911.
(05:37):
We are happy to come.
It is an honor to serve, butthere will be times when
resources will be completelyoverrun and we can't show up.
And I think I've listened toseveral of your podcasts.
I think most people that tuneinto this podcast will know all
these things Right.
(05:58):
They'll know where theutilities are, they'll know how
to turn them off.
But do their partners,roommates, spouses, do they know
it?
So I think for me.
So if I'm at work and I getdeployed I've been deployed to
California multiple times.
I went to Lahine after thefires last year for two weeks.
(06:20):
I'm gone multiple weeks at atime.
If I'm gone, my wife can openthe app If a waterline breaks.
She opens the app.
She touches water.
It shows a satellite image ofwhere it's at, a description of
the downstairs utility closet.
She goes downstairs.
There's a picture of the valveshe needs to turn off.
She turns it off and undercontacts in that resource for
(06:45):
water is the plumber that I'veentered in the app and she just
hit send and says I have a leak,can you please come fix it?
So also water.
I have reminders to changewater filters and get things
serviced as they need to be.
George Siegal (07:05):
Now, if I download the app and I set all
this up, how will my wife haveit on her phone?
Does she have to have aseparate account?
How do we share thatinformation?
Will that all be doable?
Andrew Leith (07:16):
So because everybody I thought everyone
should know this because, well,partly guilt that we can't be
there when you need us.
So you can download the app andyou can enter a single property
for free.
Anybody can download it andenter the information and you
can download the app and receiveproperties for free.
So your wife, if you haveteenage kids in the house, they
(07:43):
can download the app, they canreceive All the information on
the property for free.
If you had an office buildingwith several employees, they you
can enter the office buildingand they can receive it for free
.
Now, if you want to entermultiple properties, there's
fees to enter multipleproperties into the app.
George Siegal (08:03):
Now so.
So once I set it up when yousay a property once I've set up
all the Contacts and whereeverything is, I could just send
it to her and then she'll haveeverything, or my kids would yep
, they'll have everything theyneed.
Andrew Leith (08:14):
They'll have right now they receive everything.
In future builds we're going tohave different layers of
sharing.
So let's say you had a Triplexand you had a Management company
that manage that for you.
You could share everything withthe management company, the
(08:35):
management company could sharemost of it with the maintenance
company and Then the propertyowners would get the things that
they need just for the property.
George Siegal (08:46):
Now, one of the things I've realized recently
and and I learned this and as Iwas making my last film, which
which is is not out yet, it'sokay, I have a generator at my
house and if my house floodedand we had to go upstairs, what
I had never thought about wasthe power would still be on
because my generator would be on.
So I don't know in the fuse boxwhich fuses I would turn off
(09:09):
that are downstairs so we couldcome back down.
Is that a layer of somethingthat could be done in this app?
Andrew Leith (09:17):
So, yes, so you can enter anything you want into
the app.
So we have a generator and wehave a laminated sheet of
instructions on how to start thegenerator, and so you can store
the photo of that sheet andPhoto of the the cords and all
(09:38):
that stuff.
You can make a video, but videocosts a lot more to store.
So if you store videos thenyou're gonna have to pay to
store the videos.
But but you could, you couldtake a picture of your
electrical panel and Mark theones you need to and store that
To know which ones you need toshut off.
(10:00):
But yes, I'm glad you have agenerator, but yet they are.
George Siegal (10:06):
They come with other items you need to be aware
of, so well, they sure do, andthey don't tell you that when
you're buying it.
I didn't even know you neededto put oil in it if it ran for a
couple of days.
You know I'm exposing howstupid I am, but I had no idea
until I asked the guy, as he wasdoing a maintenance on it.
So I didn't have oil, I didn'tknow what the keys were for and
(10:28):
what I would need.
So I thought of that stuffbecause it was hooked up to
natural gas, that it wouldalways just work and and that's
not the case.
So I guess I'm just bringing upmy lack of knowledge just to
impress upon people how littlemost of us know and how
important an app like this mightactually be for them.
Andrew Leith (10:47):
Yes, and so we can't.
We can't change people'smindset on.
Hey, you need to be prepared.
You're doing a great job withall your Videos and podcasts.
I'm doing what I can withclasses and doing the app.
But when, when the conversationcomes up and People want to do
(11:11):
something, this is somethingthey can do for free when
they're having the conversationand they can, they can enter
those things.
When you're looking thosethings up, like, hey, I need
fuel, I need oil, I need youknow this is the type of oil.
For instance, your filter inyour furnace you can take a
(11:32):
picture of your furnace.
You can take a picture of youryour tag that has all the
information model number andeverything and a picture of your
filter and you can setreminders.
So when that reminder pops up,you can say, hey, I need to.
It says change your firstfurnace filter.
You open the app and it showsyou what it is.
You pick one up on the way homechange it, set a new reminder.
(11:54):
So it's when people are havingthese conversations.
They can enter that stuff in theapp because people won't think
clearly when the disasterhappens and they will have a
reference guide.
No-transcript If you're the onethat has that knowledge but
your spouse doesn't.
You can enter it in the app.
It'll be a reference guide ifyou're not home, all of those
(12:16):
things.
I'm hoping that this becomessimilar to a home inspection.
A home inspector could enterall of this into the app.
You would have everything youneed to know and you could just
scroll through and figure out.
When a window breaks in yourhouse, you could take photos of
(12:37):
before, after store who replacedthe window.
Then, when you sell the home tothe next person, that
information would be transferred.
When their son breaks thewindow, they can just say, hey,
fix it last time and call it out.
George Siegal (12:55):
I guess my next question would be obviously,
unless you won the lottery andyou're doing this for fun, how
do you pay for all this?
Because it's not cheap.
I've tried coming up with ideaslike that and it's time
consuming If you're not actuallya techie yourself.
It's tough getting people thatactually do what they say
they're going to do, even thoughthere's a lot of good people,
it can be very expensive.
(13:16):
How do you pay for all this?
Andrew Leith (13:18):
Yes, it has been very expensive.
So we moved from.
We lived in the suburbs ofSeattle.
We sold our house there, wemoved out to the country, we
refinanced our house to build ashop and I taught a few classes.
I asked the wife if I could usethe shop funds to do this app.
(13:40):
After several discussions shesaid I don't care, it's your
shop.
See your shop or your app, dowhatever you want.
So we use all of that money togo through, start the process.
Then we ran out and mymother-in-law, who is a
(14:02):
self-made woman who just she's areal estate agent.
She's a commercial andresidential landlord.
She's spent an entire lifebuilding up her portfolio.
She said I believe in this,we're going to make this happen.
So she bought in and she's beenfunding the latest endeavors
(14:28):
with patent attorneys andcontract attorneys and software
companies.
And yeah, it's a long road.
George Siegal (14:35):
Have you been able to get a patent on it?
I mean, like if you weresitting on Shark Tank and I'm Mr
Wonderful, what's the stop?
Once this thing is great and Ithink it's just a phenomenal
idea, what's the stop somebodyelse from just taking the idea
and doing it themselves?
Andrew Leith (14:49):
I do have an issued US patent and I have a
placeholder for internationalpatents as well.
George Siegal (14:55):
So and then, once you've launched this and it's
out there, how will you makemoney?
I know your goal probably isnot to get rich by it, but it's
nice to sustain it.
Will you be able to have ads onthere?
I mean, will there be a freeversion, a paid version?
What's the long-term thought?
Andrew Leith (15:13):
So you can enter multiple properties for a fee
and those properties can includewhat we're calling mobile
properties.
So if you have an RV, forexample, or a boat, or you can
store all of those properties.
And if you had an RV and youneed to know where the generator
was, instead of marking on asatellite image of the property,
(15:37):
you'd take pictures of the RVand it would be driver side rear
compartment.
George Siegal (15:43):
But where's the revenue model in this business
to sustain it over the longperiod of time?
So the app is up there.
Will there be a way that youcan actually and I don't think
there's anything wrong if youdid make some money off of it,
because I think you're gonna behelping a lot of people.
But is there a plan for that?
Because at 499 or whatever, youneed a lot of people to make a
lot of money with that.
Andrew Leith (16:03):
Yeah, so there'll be ads for the free version.
Once several thousand peopledownload it, then we'll be
selling ads, so you will gettop-up ads, because I have to
pay to store all of the dataentered in the app.
George Siegal (16:21):
So, of course and I'm not begrudging any of that
man.
I think that you absolutelynobody, unless they're Bill
Gates, and he makes money off ofmaking money, so he's probably
a horrible example, but unlessyou're able to be such a
philanthropist that you expectnothing back, you have to make
money, and I know when there'san app that I like and there's a
free version versus a paid,I'll buy it because I wanna
(16:42):
support the person who's makingthe app.
I think it's like wow, they'regiving me something that's
really making my life better andI think people should think
that way.
It's like we wanna encouragethis kind of stuff.
Andrew Leith (16:54):
So commercial versions will pay.
So we had a fire at CommunityCollege at the science
laboratory.
So there was a big gas linegoing into the building and the
building had an elevated walkwayall the way around it and
underneath the walkway, all theway up to the building, on all
(17:17):
sides, was Ivy, ground cover Ivy, and we had a fire in there.
We put the fire out.
We were looking for the gasmeter to turn off gas to that
building that had beencompromised and we cut the roof
and forced some doors and allthis machinery was melted the we
(17:38):
couldn't find the shutoff.
The Community Collegemaintenance staff didn't know
where the shutoff was and whenthe gas company showed up it
took them an hour to find thegas shutoff for that building.
So if you have a big commercialcomplex or a campus, you can
(17:58):
download the app, you can enterall these, all the information,
store all the information andyou, but you will be paying to
use the app.
George Siegal (18:05):
In a commercial setting I would imagine
something is frustrating for youas a firefighter is the things
people just don't seem to getand unfortunately, in your case
a lot of them endangerfirefighters lives by their own.
We'll say stupidity.
You'll probably be nicer than Iwill.
Driving into a deep water,staying during a storm and
(18:28):
having to get plucked off theroof, trying to get out, stay in
the house and fight the firethemselves.
I mean all these things.
It must really make you guys go.
What am I doing here?
Andrew Leith (18:39):
It can be frustrating.
I was in Napa, california, at awildfire.
We were prepping a house.
A girl pulled up with hercamera she was with the local
news agency shoved her camera inmy face and said hey, what do
you say to the homeowner thatdidn't prep the structure?
So now you're here risking yourlife, prepping the structure
(19:01):
for them when they should havedone it before they left.
And I just said look, we camedown from Washington state to do
what we can.
We were given the street toprep these structures.
We're just doing our job.
She was very disappointed inthat answer and walked away.
But it is.
You know, we scratch our head.
(19:22):
You have to practice your pokerface when you walk in and you
see what's happening and you askhow well, how do we get to this
point?
And you know it's usually someunbelievable story.
But we do what we can.
It's an entertaining job.
But yeah, I mean, those poordecisions are.
(19:43):
Is our job security?
George Siegal (19:46):
And they can also endanger your life sadly and
put you guys at risk.
What's the dumbest thing you'veever seen somebody do?
Andrew Leith (19:56):
Well, we get people who call 911 to have us
flip their futon mattress.
We get that, but they get builtfor that?
George Siegal (20:03):
Will they get charged for that, if you have to
do that?
Andrew Leith (20:05):
Not in my agency.
You know.
We've had base jumpers jump offcell towers and get their their
parachute caught up in the guywires holding up the the tower.
That man was a.
He was a college professor andhe got billed.
The judge made him pay for thethe overtime on that one.
(20:27):
Yeah, there's, it's been 25years.
There's, there's a lot of them.
George Siegal (20:32):
You ever roll up to a scene and you look at it
and you go, no, that was reallystupid, we're out of here, we're
not helping.
Andrew Leith (20:40):
We, we, we have laughed before we started
helping, but we've helpedeveryone.
We came in contact with howrealistic?
George Siegal (20:48):
are those fire shows on TV like Chicago Fire,
all those rescue shows?
What do you think when youwatch those things, or do you?
Andrew Leith (20:56):
not even bother.
Actually, I actually don'twatch those shows.
George Siegal (21:00):
To be honest, I I don't watch much TV where I
have, you know, three kids there, two of them running all over
the houses, yeah, it just makesit seem like when you're on call
, you guys are always having abig feast and eating really well
, and then, right when you sitdown to dinner, the fire alarm
goes off and you have to go outand risk your life in the middle
(21:21):
of your meal.
Andrew Leith (21:22):
Well, that part is usually true.
We usually make a meal and thenhave to heat it up later.
But yeah, I work.
I have a really good crew thatI work with.
I'm assigned to a heavy rescue.
So we're that truck that washanging off the bridge the other
day where they did the rescue,with the ladders and the rope
(21:45):
system.
Like that's the stuff we drillon on a daily basis and cutting
cars apart, shoring upstructures that have compromised
.
George Siegal (21:56):
And I think that's what people don't
understand.
It's like when you guys go outand do something heroic like
that, it's not the I mean, maybeyou'll run into things you
haven't seen before.
But you guys drill and prepare.
Homeowners do not put inanywhere near the effort to
prepare and then you think in adisaster you're gonna be able to
function.
I've been around this stuff foryears, having to either report
(22:18):
on it or worry about it myself.
Your brain doesn't, as anaverage person, doesn't, work
the same way.
When all of a suddensomething's barreling towards
you, you don't think as quickly,you don't react as well.
Andrew Leith (22:30):
Right, and even if you did know what you're
looking for, I've been on 30calls.
You know it doesn't snow veryoften up here in the Seattle
area, but when it does and itfreezes for a while, pipes
freeze and break and then peoplecall 911.
And we show up and there is ahuge number of old homes that
(22:54):
don't have water shutoffs insidethe home.
The only shutoff is the valvenear the street.
And when we've asked them, hey,where's your water meter
shutoff?
No clue.
So we're out there with shovelsdigging through the snow
looking for their meter to shutit off, because nobody knows
(23:15):
where it is.
When it's just cold, you canfind it.
When it's covered in snow,you're digging, literally
digging.
So I called six different hugefire departments in Northern
United States and I asked all ofthem hey, when there's water
flowing in a home from a brokenpipe that's frozen and there's
(23:38):
no shutoff inside, how do youlocate the water meter and the
shutoff valve?
I thought they'd talk to meabout, about, excuse me, metal
detectors or pre-planned maps orsomething.
Every one of them said that'snot a problem.
We call the water district andwe leave.
So even emergency servicescan't.
(24:05):
They don't have the bandwidthor the means.
So there'll be another versionof this app in the future where
the fire department can see theutilities entered for each
property.
George Siegal (24:16):
So if you're out front, Wow that would be great.
Andrew Leith (24:18):
Yeah, if I'm out front in the snow and water's
flowing inside, I can have mydriver.
Hey, the meter is three feetright of the driveway.
Start digging there.
George Siegal (24:30):
So when I go to set this app up and I'm gonna be
one of your first users I wantyou to tell me when this thing
goes live, because I need allthis stuff and it'll be right at
the beginning of hurricaneseason, so I think it'll be
important.
How do you gather all thatinformation?
If I no longer remember wherethe gas shutoff is or where the
water shutoff is, how will Iacquire that intel so I can put
(24:51):
it in the app?
Andrew Leith (24:53):
So right now you have to manually enter
everything.
So if you don't know whatyou're looking for, you'll have
to phone a friend, because we'rein the very beginning stages.
I'm hoping to pair up withbuilding inspectors in the near
future, because they have allthe information, their license,
they're bonded, they know whatthey're looking for.
If they come over and enteryour basic utilities, they could
(25:19):
do it for a small fee.
It would cost them nothingother than just their time.
So right now you have to enterit yourself.
I'm in talks with a softwarecompany where, hopefully within
the next year, we're gonnaintegrate some type of AI into
the app.
Where you touch gas meter, itwill give you instructions to
(25:42):
point your phone at where theexterior wall meets the ground
and walk around your propertyand then, when it sees the gas
meter, it will tell you.
They'll take a picture of it,it'll mark it, they'll say that
is your gas meter and then I'llshow you where the shutoff.
The pipe comes out of theground, goes through the meter
(26:04):
into the house.
New ones have shutoffs on boththe sides of the meter.
Old gas meters only have themon the pipe.
It comes out of the ground.
George Siegal (26:12):
And if I call the local gas company and just say
I'm not during a disaster but ona sunny day, you think would
they help with that?
I mean, I'm just thinking thata lot of people are gonna have
to program it themselvesinitially, how to make that as
easy as possible so theyactually do it.
Andrew Leith (26:30):
Yes, we're gonna put a few videos on the website
on what you're looking for, but,yes, right now it's find a
friend.
I don't know that the gascompany would come out.
I haven't talked to themspecifically about this.
I've talked to a few of theservice members who go out in
(26:51):
the field and do the work.
They all said, hey, this isamazing, you should run with
this.
Like, yeah, I started this in2020, I'm deep into this.
It's just, they save five yearsfor every startup.
So we're working on it, butright now you have to manually
(27:12):
enter everything or find afriend who knows what they're
looking at.
George Siegal (27:16):
Hey, the gas company is really quick when
you're telling me to smell gas,but I don't think that would be
a good use of saying that.
The other night we were outwalking around and you could
smell gas everywhere and wecalled and they were right out
there and it ended up being abig gas leak in the neighborhood
.
But for your individual house,obviously, people need to just
(27:37):
allow a lot of time.
But as soon as you get the app,people should really put all
their stuff in there, becausethey have no idea how valuable
something like this can be.
This is one of the best ideasI've heard of in a long time.
So my hat's off to you, man.
I think it's fantastic.
And you said you have a coupleI thoughts of when it might be
out.
You're really saying earlysummer, beginning or the end of
(27:58):
May.
Andrew Leith (27:58):
Yeah, so we're gonna, we're.
I'm telling people June, sotell me, but it should be out
June of 24, so we'll haveversions to test before that.
But Please know it's a work inprogress.
We're doing the best we can.
We're doing it with privatemoney.
We're trying to createsomething that will will save
(28:22):
lives.
So if there's bugs, please letus know and we'll we'll get them
fixed as soon as we can.
But yeah, this is not.
This isn't some insurancecompany that has started
something to save them money.
This is just some randomknuckle dragging firemen who saw
a need and Said, hey, let's seewhat we can do here.
George Siegal (28:45):
Though, yeah, when I think of what you guys do
, it reminds me of those fireladders we have for our second
floor of our house, the kindthat did like accordion out and
you set them up.
And I had a guy on who made afire ladder invention where it
mounts on the side of your houseand it's an actual ladder that
can turn sideways and you don'tsee it and then it turns out so
(29:05):
you're not on route rail andunraveling anything and you can
actually practice climbing downit.
And I thought about if I everhad to throw the cheap one I
have out the window and use it,I would have no idea how to get
out of my house.
I mean, most people neverpractice with those things.
I wouldn't even know how tomount it on a window.
Andrew Leith (29:21):
It's true, I, I have them for my kids rooms
upstairs and I've shown them.
But yeah, like you said, Idon't know that they would.
I Don't know they would knowhow to actually climb out the
window.
So yeah, we all have things wecould be better at and do do
better at.
George Siegal (29:41):
So yeah, the moral of my story is that this
guy I don't think he was afirefighter, but he came up with
a great invention.
And you actually are afirefighter, firefighter and you
came up with a great invention.
So I think this thing is gonnabe huge, because I a lot of
times you think, well, there'snow nobody's gonna do that.
I can't think of why somebodywouldn't want to do this, other
than we're all just complacentand lazy.
Andrew Leith (30:02):
And that's if it can become standard with a home
inspection, I would love to tiein.
Tie in with the inspectionsoftware.
So is there entering it?
All they have to do is go backand mark locations and it's all
stored in there.
Then you just have to go backand enter the contact
information for who'sresponsible for Servicing your
(30:24):
furnace, if you have acommercial property, who's
Responsible for servicing yourelevators, your fire suppression
systems, your outdoorirrigation systems, all those
things.
It could be one stop for allInformation need for your
properties.
George Siegal (30:39):
So yeah, and that's one of the things we're
learning as I learned with thepodcast into my last film is
that Regular maintenance on ahouse is something that's so
important for maintaining it.
So things like changing yourfilters, flushing the hot water
tank, cleaning the dryer vent ifyou could program all those
things in to the device that'sin your hand, probably 99% of
(30:59):
the time, that's pretty valuable.
Andrew Leith (31:02):
Yes, yeah and I.
So I'm gonna have our house andI'm gonna have my wife's
Grandmother's house and we'regonna have the same app, my wife
and I.
So my wife's gonna see thereminders to change her
grandmother's furnace filtersand if I don't do it, I'm gonna
hear about it at the dinnertable, right?
(31:23):
So it's gonna be Incentive toget that stuff done and have
those talks whenever reminderpops up.
It's a tool to storeinformation when you're calm and
Can look things up, so uselater when you're not calm and
there's no help.
George Siegal (31:44):
So do you ever think of going on shark tank?
I mean, I think they would bekinder to you than they would be
to somebody like me, althoughyou'd really have to show them a
lot of numbers and everything,and so it might not be a Shark
tank type of thing, but I alwaysthink of things in those terms
about okay, how would these guysdestroy this?
They might get you on being abusinessman, but they certainly
have to love the idea.
Andrew Leith (32:04):
Yeah, so I actually did apply to shark tank
.
I had apparently there's Sevensteps.
I made it to six and I neverheard back.
But I'm actually really glad wedidn't because of the time.
At that time what we wereasking, what the company was
evaluated at was, was really low.
So if we can get a, a workingversion out there, with several
(32:29):
thousand users, that's a muchdifferent story.
But I Think I'm hoping that youknow it's not from insurance
companies, but it would saveinsurance companies a lot of
money, because even just waterdamage alone, when we go out all
(32:50):
the time to shut people's wateroff and Every time I do is hey,
just so you know, this is thetool we use your water meters
here you should go pick one ofthese up and store it in your
garage and you ever need to dothis again.
Turn it off here.
But it's just something thatpeople don't realize they need
(33:13):
and yeah, yeah and it's tough toget the insurance company
involved in proactive ideas.
George Siegal (33:20):
I haven't been able to get them to back any of
my films because they just say,oh no, that's not something we'd
spend money on.
I said Do you realize, ifpeople were proactive, the
amount of money and lives thatcould be saved by thinking ahead
?
And I've never gotten a goodresponse.
I hope you do better than I did.
Andrew Leith (33:38):
Well, okay, I'll keep you posted.
This could be if you knew wherethe shot off was.
The pipe breaks, you go outside, you shut it off, you clean it
up with towels, as opposed tocalling 911.
Where I live, there's someamazing volunteers that come
when you call 911, but Ifeveryone's pipes are breaking,
(34:00):
those volunteers gonna bedelayed in the city.
If everyone's pipes arebreaking, that's a low priority
call.
It's gonna be leaking and oncewe get there and we're digging
through the snow, we've, youknow, spent an hour and once.
If that water leaks for an hour, that's a much bigger expense
to the insurance company.
Then it's cleaning up withtowels.
George Siegal (34:20):
Yeah, which leaves me the last thing I
really want to bring up and wewere out for a film I did in the
Malibu fire in in 2018, andwhat a lot of people found out
when they went to useSuppression systems and and run
water if they relied on waterfrom the city or the county.
When everybody's using theirwater, there's not much water
for you in a disaster, soresources really do get strained
(34:43):
when, when the chips are down.
Andrew Leith (34:45):
Yes, very much so.
Yeah, even the systems Fail.
So if there's a single incident, we've had huge apartment fires
and we call the water districtand say, bump up the pressure in
the entire area and they canfunnel more pressure and our
rigs don't have to work as hardand we can, we can handle that
(35:07):
incident, but you spread thatout over the entire region.
There's, there's nothing tobump up.
It's there's.
George Siegal (35:16):
there's not enough volume, so you're just
done so yeah, well, hey, andrew,thank you first off for the job
you do as a firefighter,because we we count on you guys,
and so thank you for that andgood luck with the app.
If you need volunteers like Isay my hands in the air when
you're ready for test dummiesreach out to me and we could do
another podcast about it.
(35:37):
Talk about it.
I just think it's a terrificidea and I wish you a lot of
success with it.
Andrew Leith (35:42):
Thank you, I will keep you posted.
Yeah, I'll let you know when itcomes out.
Thank you very much for takingthe time to do today.
George Siegal (35:48):
If you have any great invention or idea to make
the lives of your fellowhomeowners better, I would love
to hear from you.
There's a contact form in theshow notes.
Fill it out and let's shareyour invention.
And if you enjoyed what youjust listened to, I hope you
will become a regular subscriber.
A new episode Comes out everyTuesday morning.
Thanks again for listeningtoday.
See you next time.
One of the most important things we can all do
is make sure we are prepared ifa disaster hits our home.
When it does, there's a bigdifference in how things go for
those that had a plan and thosethat did not.
That includes knowing your home, where the gas and water
shutoffs are and the emergencyservice phone numbers, and you
can't start making that planright before the disaster
(00:22):
happens.
My guest today is Andrew Leith,a 25-year firefighter who saw a
void that most of us have andis doing something about it.
He created an app called DwellSecure, and it will give you a
central place of organizationfor all your important home
information, so when thatdisaster happens, you are ready.
I'm George Siegal, and this isHomeowners Be Aware, the podcast
(00:45):
that teaches you everything youneed to know about being a
homeowner.
Andrew, thank you so much forjoining me today.
Andrew Leith (00:52):
Thank you, george, I'm happy to be on your podcast
.
George Siegal (00:56):
Now you're talking, you're working on
something really interestingcalled the Dwell Secure app, and
I want to start off talkingabout that.
Tell me about the app and whatyour goal is with it.
Andrew Leith (01:09):
So it came from.
I was paired up with a publicinformation officer I worked for
I have 25 years in the firedepartment, and she asked if I
could teach some disasterpreparedness classes.
So I taught several and I hadthe first four classes that I
taught.
I explained the 911 system, howit works who's coming when you
(01:33):
call 911 and then I explainedthat if a disaster happens,
there won't be enough resourcesto go around, and people did not
like that answer.
So then I would ask who hereknows how to shut off their gas
if you have natural gas flowinginside of your home, and out of
(01:54):
the first four classes there wastwo people that knew where the
gas meters were.
There was one person that knewhow to shut it off.
So that's where the idea camefrom.
So it allows you to markutilities or resources inside of
(02:15):
your home or office or anydwelling, and then you mark it
on a satellite image of yourproperty and you store photos
and information regarding thatresource.
George Siegal (02:28):
Now I love it.
I think it sounds fantastic,but I do have a lot of questions
about it, the first one beingwhen I live in Florida, when
Hurricane Michael hit in thepanhandle, one of the first
things that happened was Verizonwent down, so that's your phone
carrier.
So now, if I'm relying on thisapp to help me with all those
(02:51):
things and my phone goes out,what happens?
Andrew Leith (02:55):
So all of the information entered in the app
will be stored on your deviceand in the cloud.
So when you get a new deviceyou download all the information
.
If your device gets cut offfrom all services, you will at a
minimum have the informationand the pictures, the satellite
(03:18):
map.
They still can't tell me ifit's going to work or not, but
at a minimum you'll see whereyou pinned it on your property
and the picture of what you needto activate to shut off
utilities.
George Siegal (03:32):
Now I think that's huge.
Now it's interesting too.
You're not just like a guy whowas a truck driver and then
decided to do a baking app.
I mean, you're in thefirefighting business, so you
know about this stuff firsthand,and when a disaster hits,
people don't think straight.
Andrew Leith (03:50):
No, definitely not .
I've seen many cases whererational people and that's what
I tell people in my class aswell as, during a disaster, good
people will do bad things totake care of their loved ones,
so it's something to be aware of.
I have food and water and waysto purify water, because I am
(04:15):
not going to be in the grocerystore wrestling with other
fathers trying to feed theirchildren, so that is one of the
motivating factors for me tohave supplies at my house.
George Siegal (04:29):
Yeah, another thing too.
I mean, with my podcast and allthe things I've learned about
being a homeowner, I would stillconsider myself somewhat
unprepared for a lot of things,and when you said one person in
the class, that was actuallyhigh, I thought it would be
nobody.
I mean, sure, when you're doingyour walkthrough, when you're
moving into your house, theyexplain this stuff to you, but I
(04:49):
don't remember any of it, and Iimagine a lot of people are in
that boat.
Andrew Leith (04:54):
Exactly so.
My wife.
She's currently a schoolteacher.
Before she was a school teacher, she was an attorney.
Before she was an attorney, shewas a real estate agent.
Before that, she played sevenyears of professional soccer.
She can do anything, but shehas never had to know where
(05:14):
these resources are, nor caredto know.
So she's.
I think in the United Statesspecifically, we've done a very
good job at call 911.
If you need help, call 911.
And as a person who hops on therig and shows up when you need
help, we want you to call 911.
(05:37):
We are happy to come.
It is an honor to serve, butthere will be times when
resources will be completelyoverrun and we can't show up.
And I think I've listened toseveral of your podcasts.
I think most people that tuneinto this podcast will know all
these things Right.
(05:58):
They'll know where theutilities are, they'll know how
to turn them off.
But do their partners,roommates, spouses, do they know
it?
So I think for me.
So if I'm at work and I getdeployed I've been deployed to
California multiple times.
I went to Lahine after thefires last year for two weeks.
(06:20):
I'm gone multiple weeks at atime.
If I'm gone, my wife can openthe app If a waterline breaks.
She opens the app.
She touches water.
It shows a satellite image ofwhere it's at, a description of
the downstairs utility closet.
She goes downstairs.
There's a picture of the valveshe needs to turn off.
She turns it off and undercontacts in that resource for
(06:45):
water is the plumber that I'veentered in the app and she just
hit send and says I have a leak,can you please come fix it?
So also water.
I have reminders to changewater filters and get things
serviced as they need to be.
George Siegal (07:05):
Now, if I download the app and I set all
this up, how will my wife haveit on her phone?
Does she have to have aseparate account?
How do we share thatinformation?
Will that all be doable?
Andrew Leith (07:16):
So because everybody I thought everyone
should know this because, well,partly guilt that we can't be
there when you need us.
So you can download the app andyou can enter a single property
for free.
Anybody can download it andenter the information and you
can download the app and receiveproperties for free.
So your wife, if you haveteenage kids in the house, they
(07:43):
can download the app, they canreceive All the information on
the property for free.
If you had an office buildingwith several employees, they you
can enter the office buildingand they can receive it for free
.
Now, if you want to entermultiple properties, there's
fees to enter multipleproperties into the app.
George Siegal (08:03):
Now so.
So once I set it up when yousay a property once I've set up
all the Contacts and whereeverything is, I could just send
it to her and then she'll haveeverything, or my kids would yep
, they'll have everything theyneed.
Andrew Leith (08:14):
They'll have right now they receive everything.
In future builds we're going tohave different layers of
sharing.
So let's say you had a Triplexand you had a Management company
that manage that for you.
You could share everything withthe management company, the
(08:35):
management company could sharemost of it with the maintenance
company and Then the propertyowners would get the things that
they need just for the property.
George Siegal (08:46):
Now, one of the things I've realized recently
and and I learned this and as Iwas making my last film, which
which is is not out yet, it'sokay, I have a generator at my
house and if my house floodedand we had to go upstairs, what
I had never thought about wasthe power would still be on
because my generator would be on.
So I don't know in the fuse boxwhich fuses I would turn off
(09:09):
that are downstairs so we couldcome back down.
Is that a layer of somethingthat could be done in this app?
Andrew Leith (09:17):
So, yes, so you can enter anything you want into
the app.
So we have a generator and wehave a laminated sheet of
instructions on how to start thegenerator, and so you can store
the photo of that sheet andPhoto of the the cords and all
(09:38):
that stuff.
You can make a video, but videocosts a lot more to store.
So if you store videos thenyou're gonna have to pay to
store the videos.
But but you could, you couldtake a picture of your
electrical panel and Mark theones you need to and store that
To know which ones you need toshut off.
(10:00):
But yes, I'm glad you have agenerator, but yet they are.
George Siegal (10:06):
They come with other items you need to be aware
of, so well, they sure do, andthey don't tell you that when
you're buying it.
I didn't even know you neededto put oil in it if it ran for a
couple of days.
You know I'm exposing howstupid I am, but I had no idea
until I asked the guy, as he wasdoing a maintenance on it.
So I didn't have oil, I didn'tknow what the keys were for and
(10:28):
what I would need.
So I thought of that stuffbecause it was hooked up to
natural gas, that it wouldalways just work and and that's
not the case.
So I guess I'm just bringing upmy lack of knowledge just to
impress upon people how littlemost of us know and how
important an app like this mightactually be for them.
Andrew Leith (10:47):
Yes, and so we can't.
We can't change people'smindset on.
Hey, you need to be prepared.
You're doing a great job withall your Videos and podcasts.
I'm doing what I can withclasses and doing the app.
But when, when the conversationcomes up and People want to do
(11:11):
something, this is somethingthey can do for free when
they're having the conversationand they can, they can enter
those things.
When you're looking thosethings up, like, hey, I need
fuel, I need oil, I need youknow this is the type of oil.
For instance, your filter inyour furnace you can take a
(11:32):
picture of your furnace.
You can take a picture of youryour tag that has all the
information model number andeverything and a picture of your
filter and you can setreminders.
So when that reminder pops up,you can say, hey, I need to.
It says change your firstfurnace filter.
You open the app and it showsyou what it is.
You pick one up on the way homechange it, set a new reminder.
(11:54):
So it's when people are havingthese conversations.
They can enter that stuff in theapp because people won't think
clearly when the disasterhappens and they will have a
reference guide.
No-transcript If you're the onethat has that knowledge but
your spouse doesn't.
You can enter it in the app.
It'll be a reference guide ifyou're not home, all of those
(12:16):
things.
I'm hoping that this becomessimilar to a home inspection.
A home inspector could enterall of this into the app.
You would have everything youneed to know and you could just
scroll through and figure out.
When a window breaks in yourhouse, you could take photos of
(12:37):
before, after store who replacedthe window.
Then, when you sell the home tothe next person, that
information would be transferred.
When their son breaks thewindow, they can just say, hey,
fix it last time and call it out.
George Siegal (12:55):
I guess my next question would be obviously,
unless you won the lottery andyou're doing this for fun, how
do you pay for all this?
Because it's not cheap.
I've tried coming up with ideaslike that and it's time
consuming If you're not actuallya techie yourself.
It's tough getting people thatactually do what they say
they're going to do, even thoughthere's a lot of good people,
it can be very expensive.
(13:16):
How do you pay for all this?
Andrew Leith (13:18):
Yes, it has been very expensive.
So we moved from.
We lived in the suburbs ofSeattle.
We sold our house there, wemoved out to the country, we
refinanced our house to build ashop and I taught a few classes.
I asked the wife if I could usethe shop funds to do this app.
(13:40):
After several discussions shesaid I don't care, it's your
shop.
See your shop or your app, dowhatever you want.
So we use all of that money togo through, start the process.
Then we ran out and mymother-in-law, who is a
(14:02):
self-made woman who just she's areal estate agent.
She's a commercial andresidential landlord.
She's spent an entire lifebuilding up her portfolio.
She said I believe in this,we're going to make this happen.
So she bought in and she's beenfunding the latest endeavors
(14:28):
with patent attorneys andcontract attorneys and software
companies.
And yeah, it's a long road.
George Siegal (14:35):
Have you been able to get a patent on it?
I mean, like if you weresitting on Shark Tank and I'm Mr
Wonderful, what's the stop?
Once this thing is great and Ithink it's just a phenomenal
idea, what's the stop somebodyelse from just taking the idea
and doing it themselves?
Andrew Leith (14:49):
I do have an issued US patent and I have a
placeholder for internationalpatents as well.
George Siegal (14:55):
So and then, once you've launched this and it's
out there, how will you makemoney?
I know your goal probably isnot to get rich by it, but it's
nice to sustain it.
Will you be able to have ads onthere?
I mean, will there be a freeversion, a paid version?
What's the long-term thought?
Andrew Leith (15:13):
So you can enter multiple properties for a fee
and those properties can includewhat we're calling mobile
properties.
So if you have an RV, forexample, or a boat, or you can
store all of those properties.
And if you had an RV and youneed to know where the generator
was, instead of marking on asatellite image of the property,
(15:37):
you'd take pictures of the RVand it would be driver side rear
compartment.
George Siegal (15:43):
But where's the revenue model in this business
to sustain it over the longperiod of time?
So the app is up there.
Will there be a way that youcan actually and I don't think
there's anything wrong if youdid make some money off of it,
because I think you're gonna behelping a lot of people.
But is there a plan for that?
Because at 499 or whatever, youneed a lot of people to make a
lot of money with that.
Andrew Leith (16:03):
Yeah, so there'll be ads for the free version.
Once several thousand peopledownload it, then we'll be
selling ads, so you will gettop-up ads, because I have to
pay to store all of the dataentered in the app.
George Siegal (16:21):
So, of course and I'm not begrudging any of that
man.
I think that you absolutelynobody, unless they're Bill
Gates, and he makes money off ofmaking money, so he's probably
a horrible example, but unlessyou're able to be such a
philanthropist that you expectnothing back, you have to make
money, and I know when there'san app that I like and there's a
free version versus a paid,I'll buy it because I wanna
(16:42):
support the person who's makingthe app.
I think it's like wow, they'regiving me something that's
really making my life better andI think people should think
that way.
It's like we wanna encouragethis kind of stuff.
Andrew Leith (16:54):
So commercial versions will pay.
So we had a fire at CommunityCollege at the science
laboratory.
So there was a big gas linegoing into the building and the
building had an elevated walkwayall the way around it and
underneath the walkway, all theway up to the building, on all
(17:17):
sides, was Ivy, ground cover Ivy, and we had a fire in there.
We put the fire out.
We were looking for the gasmeter to turn off gas to that
building that had beencompromised and we cut the roof
and forced some doors and allthis machinery was melted the we
(17:38):
couldn't find the shutoff.
The Community Collegemaintenance staff didn't know
where the shutoff was and whenthe gas company showed up it
took them an hour to find thegas shutoff for that building.
So if you have a big commercialcomplex or a campus, you can
(17:58):
download the app, you can enterall these, all the information,
store all the information andyou, but you will be paying to
use the app.
George Siegal (18:05):
In a commercial setting I would imagine
something is frustrating for youas a firefighter is the things
people just don't seem to getand unfortunately, in your case
a lot of them endangerfirefighters lives by their own.
We'll say stupidity.
You'll probably be nicer than Iwill.
Driving into a deep water,staying during a storm and
(18:28):
having to get plucked off theroof, trying to get out, stay in
the house and fight the firethemselves.
I mean all these things.
It must really make you guys go.
What am I doing here?
Andrew Leith (18:39):
It can be frustrating.
I was in Napa, california, at awildfire.
We were prepping a house.
A girl pulled up with hercamera she was with the local
news agency shoved her camera inmy face and said hey, what do
you say to the homeowner thatdidn't prep the structure?
So now you're here risking yourlife, prepping the structure
(19:01):
for them when they should havedone it before they left.
And I just said look, we camedown from Washington state to do
what we can.
We were given the street toprep these structures.
We're just doing our job.
She was very disappointed inthat answer and walked away.
But it is.
You know, we scratch our head.
(19:22):
You have to practice your pokerface when you walk in and you
see what's happening and you askhow well, how do we get to this
point?
And you know it's usually someunbelievable story.
But we do what we can.
It's an entertaining job.
But yeah, I mean, those poordecisions are.
(19:43):
Is our job security?
George Siegal (19:46):
And they can also endanger your life sadly and
put you guys at risk.
What's the dumbest thing you'veever seen somebody do?
Andrew Leith (19:56):
Well, we get people who call 911 to have us
flip their futon mattress.
We get that, but they get builtfor that?
George Siegal (20:03):
Will they get charged for that, if you have to
do that?
Andrew Leith (20:05):
Not in my agency.
You know.
We've had base jumpers jump offcell towers and get their their
parachute caught up in the guywires holding up the the tower.
That man was a.
He was a college professor andhe got billed.
The judge made him pay for thethe overtime on that one.
(20:27):
Yeah, there's, it's been 25years.
There's, there's a lot of them.
George Siegal (20:32):
You ever roll up to a scene and you look at it
and you go, no, that was reallystupid, we're out of here, we're
not helping.
Andrew Leith (20:40):
We, we, we have laughed before we started
helping, but we've helpedeveryone.
We came in contact with howrealistic?
George Siegal (20:48):
are those fire shows on TV like Chicago Fire,
all those rescue shows?
What do you think when youwatch those things, or do you?
Andrew Leith (20:56):
not even bother.
Actually, I actually don'twatch those shows.
George Siegal (21:00):
To be honest, I I don't watch much TV where I
have, you know, three kids there, two of them running all over
the houses, yeah, it just makesit seem like when you're on call
, you guys are always having abig feast and eating really well
, and then, right when you sitdown to dinner, the fire alarm
goes off and you have to go outand risk your life in the middle
(21:21):
of your meal.
Andrew Leith (21:22):
Well, that part is usually true.
We usually make a meal and thenhave to heat it up later.
But yeah, I work.
I have a really good crew thatI work with.
I'm assigned to a heavy rescue.
So we're that truck that washanging off the bridge the other
day where they did the rescue,with the ladders and the rope
(21:45):
system.
Like that's the stuff we drillon on a daily basis and cutting
cars apart, shoring upstructures that have compromised
.
George Siegal (21:56):
And I think that's what people don't
understand.
It's like when you guys go outand do something heroic like
that, it's not the I mean, maybeyou'll run into things you
haven't seen before.
But you guys drill and prepare.
Homeowners do not put inanywhere near the effort to
prepare and then you think in adisaster you're gonna be able to
function.
I've been around this stuff foryears, having to either report
(22:18):
on it or worry about it myself.
Your brain doesn't, as anaverage person, doesn't, work
the same way.
When all of a suddensomething's barreling towards
you, you don't think as quickly,you don't react as well.
Andrew Leith (22:30):
Right, and even if you did know what you're
looking for, I've been on 30calls.
You know it doesn't snow veryoften up here in the Seattle
area, but when it does and itfreezes for a while, pipes
freeze and break and then peoplecall 911.
And we show up and there is ahuge number of old homes that
(22:54):
don't have water shutoffs insidethe home.
The only shutoff is the valvenear the street.
And when we've asked them, hey,where's your water meter
shutoff?
No clue.
So we're out there with shovelsdigging through the snow
looking for their meter to shutit off, because nobody knows
(23:15):
where it is.
When it's just cold, you canfind it.
When it's covered in snow,you're digging, literally
digging.
So I called six different hugefire departments in Northern
United States and I asked all ofthem hey, when there's water
flowing in a home from a brokenpipe that's frozen and there's
(23:38):
no shutoff inside, how do youlocate the water meter and the
shutoff valve?
I thought they'd talk to meabout, about, excuse me, metal
detectors or pre-planned maps orsomething.
Every one of them said that'snot a problem.
We call the water district andwe leave.
So even emergency servicescan't.
(24:05):
They don't have the bandwidthor the means.
So there'll be another versionof this app in the future where
the fire department can see theutilities entered for each
property.
George Siegal (24:16):
So if you're out front, Wow that would be great.
Andrew Leith (24:18):
Yeah, if I'm out front in the snow and water's
flowing inside, I can have mydriver.
Hey, the meter is three feetright of the driveway.
Start digging there.
George Siegal (24:30):
So when I go to set this app up and I'm gonna be
one of your first users I wantyou to tell me when this thing
goes live, because I need allthis stuff and it'll be right at
the beginning of hurricaneseason, so I think it'll be
important.
How do you gather all thatinformation?
If I no longer remember wherethe gas shutoff is or where the
water shutoff is, how will Iacquire that intel so I can put
(24:51):
it in the app?
Andrew Leith (24:53):
So right now you have to manually enter
everything.
So if you don't know whatyou're looking for, you'll have
to phone a friend, because we'rein the very beginning stages.
I'm hoping to pair up withbuilding inspectors in the near
future, because they have allthe information, their license,
they're bonded, they know whatthey're looking for.
If they come over and enteryour basic utilities, they could
(25:19):
do it for a small fee.
It would cost them nothingother than just their time.
So right now you have to enterit yourself.
I'm in talks with a softwarecompany where, hopefully within
the next year, we're gonnaintegrate some type of AI into
the app.
Where you touch gas meter, itwill give you instructions to
(25:42):
point your phone at where theexterior wall meets the ground
and walk around your propertyand then, when it sees the gas
meter, it will tell you.
They'll take a picture of it,it'll mark it, they'll say that
is your gas meter and then I'llshow you where the shutoff.
The pipe comes out of theground, goes through the meter
(26:04):
into the house.
New ones have shutoffs on boththe sides of the meter.
Old gas meters only have themon the pipe.
It comes out of the ground.
George Siegal (26:12):
And if I call the local gas company and just say
I'm not during a disaster but ona sunny day, you think would
they help with that?
I mean, I'm just thinking thata lot of people are gonna have
to program it themselvesinitially, how to make that as
easy as possible so theyactually do it.
Andrew Leith (26:30):
Yes, we're gonna put a few videos on the website
on what you're looking for, but,yes, right now it's find a
friend.
I don't know that the gascompany would come out.
I haven't talked to themspecifically about this.
I've talked to a few of theservice members who go out in
(26:51):
the field and do the work.
They all said, hey, this isamazing, you should run with
this.
Like, yeah, I started this in2020, I'm deep into this.
It's just, they save five yearsfor every startup.
So we're working on it, butright now you have to manually
(27:12):
enter everything or find afriend who knows what they're
looking at.
George Siegal (27:16):
Hey, the gas company is really quick when
you're telling me to smell gas,but I don't think that would be
a good use of saying that.
The other night we were outwalking around and you could
smell gas everywhere and wecalled and they were right out
there and it ended up being abig gas leak in the neighborhood
.
But for your individual house,obviously, people need to just
(27:37):
allow a lot of time.
But as soon as you get the app,people should really put all
their stuff in there, becausethey have no idea how valuable
something like this can be.
This is one of the best ideasI've heard of in a long time.
So my hat's off to you, man.
I think it's fantastic.
And you said you have a coupleI thoughts of when it might be
out.
You're really saying earlysummer, beginning or the end of
(27:58):
May.
Andrew Leith (27:58):
Yeah, so we're gonna, we're.
I'm telling people June, sotell me, but it should be out
June of 24, so we'll haveversions to test before that.
But Please know it's a work inprogress.
We're doing the best we can.
We're doing it with privatemoney.
We're trying to createsomething that will will save
(28:22):
lives.
So if there's bugs, please letus know and we'll we'll get them
fixed as soon as we can.
But yeah, this is not.
This isn't some insurancecompany that has started
something to save them money.
This is just some randomknuckle dragging firemen who saw
a need and Said, hey, let's seewhat we can do here.
George Siegal (28:45):
Though, yeah, when I think of what you guys do
, it reminds me of those fireladders we have for our second
floor of our house, the kindthat did like accordion out and
you set them up.
And I had a guy on who made afire ladder invention where it
mounts on the side of your houseand it's an actual ladder that
can turn sideways and you don'tsee it and then it turns out so
(29:05):
you're not on route rail andunraveling anything and you can
actually practice climbing downit.
And I thought about if I everhad to throw the cheap one I
have out the window and use it,I would have no idea how to get
out of my house.
I mean, most people neverpractice with those things.
I wouldn't even know how tomount it on a window.
Andrew Leith (29:21):
It's true, I, I have them for my kids rooms
upstairs and I've shown them.
But yeah, like you said, Idon't know that they would.
I Don't know they would knowhow to actually climb out the
window.
So yeah, we all have things wecould be better at and do do
better at.
George Siegal (29:41):
So yeah, the moral of my story is that this
guy I don't think he was afirefighter, but he came up with
a great invention.
And you actually are afirefighter, firefighter and you
came up with a great invention.
So I think this thing is gonnabe huge, because I a lot of
times you think, well, there'snow nobody's gonna do that.
I can't think of why somebodywouldn't want to do this, other
than we're all just complacentand lazy.
Andrew Leith (30:02):
And that's if it can become standard with a home
inspection, I would love to tiein.
Tie in with the inspectionsoftware.
So is there entering it?
All they have to do is go backand mark locations and it's all
stored in there.
Then you just have to go backand enter the contact
information for who'sresponsible for Servicing your
(30:24):
furnace, if you have acommercial property, who's
Responsible for servicing yourelevators, your fire suppression
systems, your outdoorirrigation systems, all those
things.
It could be one stop for allInformation need for your
properties.
George Siegal (30:39):
So yeah, and that's one of the things we're
learning as I learned with thepodcast into my last film is
that Regular maintenance on ahouse is something that's so
important for maintaining it.
So things like changing yourfilters, flushing the hot water
tank, cleaning the dryer vent ifyou could program all those
things in to the device that'sin your hand, probably 99% of
(30:59):
the time, that's pretty valuable.
Andrew Leith (31:02):
Yes, yeah and I.
So I'm gonna have our house andI'm gonna have my wife's
Grandmother's house and we'regonna have the same app, my wife
and I.
So my wife's gonna see thereminders to change her
grandmother's furnace filtersand if I don't do it, I'm gonna
hear about it at the dinnertable, right?
(31:23):
So it's gonna be Incentive toget that stuff done and have
those talks whenever reminderpops up.
It's a tool to storeinformation when you're calm and
Can look things up, so uselater when you're not calm and
there's no help.
George Siegal (31:44):
So do you ever think of going on shark tank?
I mean, I think they would bekinder to you than they would be
to somebody like me, althoughyou'd really have to show them a
lot of numbers and everything,and so it might not be a Shark
tank type of thing, but I alwaysthink of things in those terms
about okay, how would these guysdestroy this?
They might get you on being abusinessman, but they certainly
have to love the idea.
Andrew Leith (32:04):
Yeah, so I actually did apply to shark tank
.
I had apparently there's Sevensteps.
I made it to six and I neverheard back.
But I'm actually really glad wedidn't because of the time.
At that time what we wereasking, what the company was
evaluated at was, was really low.
So if we can get a, a workingversion out there, with several
(32:29):
thousand users, that's a muchdifferent story.
But I Think I'm hoping that youknow it's not from insurance
companies, but it would saveinsurance companies a lot of
money, because even just waterdamage alone, when we go out all
(32:50):
the time to shut people's wateroff and Every time I do is hey,
just so you know, this is thetool we use your water meters
here you should go pick one ofthese up and store it in your
garage and you ever need to dothis again.
Turn it off here.
But it's just something thatpeople don't realize they need
(33:13):
and yeah, yeah and it's tough toget the insurance company
involved in proactive ideas.
George Siegal (33:20):
I haven't been able to get them to back any of
my films because they just say,oh no, that's not something we'd
spend money on.
I said Do you realize, ifpeople were proactive, the
amount of money and lives thatcould be saved by thinking ahead
?
And I've never gotten a goodresponse.
I hope you do better than I did.
Andrew Leith (33:38):
Well, okay, I'll keep you posted.
This could be if you knew wherethe shot off was.
The pipe breaks, you go outside, you shut it off, you clean it
up with towels, as opposed tocalling 911.
Where I live, there's someamazing volunteers that come
when you call 911, but Ifeveryone's pipes are breaking,
(34:00):
those volunteers gonna bedelayed in the city.
If everyone's pipes arebreaking, that's a low priority
call.
It's gonna be leaking and oncewe get there and we're digging
through the snow, we've, youknow, spent an hour and once.
If that water leaks for an hour, that's a much bigger expense
to the insurance company.
Then it's cleaning up withtowels.
George Siegal (34:20):
Yeah, which leaves me the last thing I
really want to bring up and wewere out for a film I did in the
Malibu fire in in 2018, andwhat a lot of people found out
when they went to useSuppression systems and and run
water if they relied on waterfrom the city or the county.
When everybody's using theirwater, there's not much water
for you in a disaster, soresources really do get strained
(34:43):
when, when the chips are down.
Andrew Leith (34:45):
Yes, very much so.
Yeah, even the systems Fail.
So if there's a single incident, we've had huge apartment fires
and we call the water districtand say, bump up the pressure in
the entire area and they canfunnel more pressure and our
rigs don't have to work as hardand we can, we can handle that
(35:07):
incident, but you spread thatout over the entire region.
There's, there's nothing tobump up.
It's there's.
George Siegal (35:16):
there's not enough volume, so you're just
done so yeah, well, hey, andrew,thank you first off for the job
you do as a firefighter,because we we count on you guys,
and so thank you for that andgood luck with the app.
If you need volunteers like Isay my hands in the air when
you're ready for test dummiesreach out to me and we could do
another podcast about it.
(35:37):
Talk about it.
I just think it's a terrificidea and I wish you a lot of
success with it.
Andrew Leith (35:42):
Thank you, I will keep you posted.
Yeah, I'll let you know when itcomes out.
Thank you very much for takingthe time to do today.
George Siegal (35:48):
If you have any great invention or idea to make
the lives of your fellowhomeowners better, I would love
to hear from you.
There's a contact form in theshow notes.
Fill it out and let's shareyour invention.
And if you enjoyed what youjust listened to, I hope you
will become a regular subscriber.
A new episode Comes out everyTuesday morning.
Thanks again for listeningtoday.
See you next time.
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