Ok we had a small fire at our house yesterday. First off we are good everyone is safe and the damage is minimal inside the house. Now let me tell you how it happened.
4:00am 10/09/09
The power goes out and wakes me up. I notice a light in my daughters room that is brighter than normal and a smell then I notice a weird sound coming from the fridge. Then it trips a breaker and I try to go to sleep. I get up an hour later to start to get ready for work and watch TV. I turn the breakers back on and go to work.
10:00am 10/09/09
Hali calls me at work. She has tripped a breaker. She says that she was vacuuming and it just tripped. She also says that she smells something but isn't sure what it is.
11:45am 10/09/09 Hali calls she is telling me that the fridge is not working, the light is on but its not cold. I tell her to call the Home Shield insurance we have(best buy ever!). I call my dad to give him the situation and he suggests calling Oncor to get them out to see what the deal is, we call them and they are going to send someone.
3:45pm 10/09/09
My grandmother calls from my house and says none of the TVs work and she smells something. I call my Father to see if he is anywhere near the house so he can check it out since he is an electrician. He is unable to make it but has a guy in the area and will send him our way.
4:00pm 10/09/09
I call my grandmother back and let her know that one of dad's guys is on the way to tell him to call me when he gets there, I also talk to Hali she is out of her parent/teacher conference and tell her the same thing.
4:05pm 10/09/09
Hali calls me and tells me she just walked in the house and its smokey. I tell her to get the kids and the dogs out and in the car and to walk through and see if she can see where the smoke is coming from and suggested that she look in the attic. She says that she does not see anything.
4:07pm 10/09/09
I am on the phone with my Friend the Firefighter and he is telling me what she needs to look for, Hali beeps in and tells me that smoke is billowing out of the attic and the fire department is on the way. I needless to say freak out and call my boss tell him I am leaving and that my house is on fire, I try to explain when I will be back and all of that and he has to tell me four times to go.
4:22pm 10/09/09
I did not hit anyone or run any one off the road on my way home. I get to the house and have to go inside to unlock my back door. I see the damage in my living room wall and think wow is that it? I am then told by My dads guy that the house is getting electricity but is cut off at the meter. I know little about electricity compared to my dad but I know that this scenario does not make sense. So he and I go through explanations and come up with nothing. I find Hali and she has the kids at a neighbors and the baby with my grandma and she is with her dad in the driveway. When we figure it out is seems obvious, the neutral from the street (the power pole) has come loose and is laying on the hot wire at the pole, this sent elcetricity up the ground wire. The ground wire runs through your house to and for everything, its a safety measure so if your house is struck by lighting it will run down the ground and out with out any damage. My dad told me that he has seen that happen many times and has never seen it result in fire or electrifying a house before. My Local firefighters were kind enough to let me see through their infrared camera to look at the hot spots, before we figured it out every piece of metal on my house was glowing in this camera. Oncor got out there and fixed the issue and we were able to get in the house. We were lucky we found it when we did, it burned the casing off of a Coax cable in the wall that caught the insulation and wood in the wall on fire all in one stud space. It could have been much worse as far as damage goes, the smell is bad but nothing was burned by the fire. All my appliances might be done for but we can replace that stuff.
9:45am 10/10/09
Sitting here now typing this I know how blessed we are and how much worse it could have been. One of my best friends' house burned to the ground several years ago and I helped her pick up the pieces. Fire can be devastating, we are inconvenienced for a few weeks at the least and a few months at the most, now its the waiting game. Waiting on insurance adjusters and contractors and everything else. I am grateful and thankful that its just what it is, repairable. Its funny that morning we went over the fire drill with JB for school.
No comments:
Post a Comment