OMG, House Almost Caught Fire!!

Discussion in 'Off-Topic' started by Pbav8tor, Oct 25, 2012.

  1. Pbav8tor

    Pbav8tor Old Fart

    The power line to the house goes through the walnut tree in the back yard. Well a branch rubbed through the insulation on the wire which arc to the common line burning it into. It was like a movie, Poltergeist! Lights going on and off, even if the switch was off. Then when the lights came on they were Superbright. Had a couple of fans on and they almost took flight. Then the home theater system started smoking, bad and it wasn't even on! Then tvs started smoking! Anything plugged in was smoking! I'm running around unpluging things, talking to 911 and trying to figure out what's going on. Can't believe that the circuit breakers didn't trip, I turned them off. Firetruck shows up. They look around and don't find fire just the smoke from the electronics. They say that it was some sort of power surge. Firetruck leaves and I call PUD. Before PUD gets here I go outside and that is when I found the wire problem. When PUD shows up I point out the wire and he says yup that's the problem. He pulls the truck down in the yard and uses the cherry picker to go up and splice the wire. Flip the circuit breakers and everything is good, sort of! Several items Fried, 2 Xbox games, clock radio, a fan, dvd player, water boiler, and the clothes drier! The tvs and the home theater all work but I think they are seriously compromised. They were smoking so bad I thought they were going to burst into flames. I now need something from PUD and then talk to the home insurance. Could have been a lot worse.
     
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  3. buggman

    buggman Do not touch the trim!

    Holy crap!
    Glad the damage wasn't worse.
    Hopefully your insurance will cover the losses.
     
  4. rango88

    rango88 Chuck Norris Drove a Ram

    damn that sucks, glad youre okay. Hope your insurance covers it.
     
  5. shovelmike

    shovelmike New Member

    Wow

    Man, I didn't know a tree limb rubbing through the wire would cause that overvoltage situation. The power company came through during the Summer and cut the trees way back from the lines, I'm glad they did..
     
  6. Freemans 00

    Freemans 00 Active Member

    It doesnt effect it at all. The only way there is going to be an overload is if some that is a conductor touches it and the ground or if so much voltage goes through. Then you could have possibly had the tree limb touching two lines together.
     
  7. doyouquaxu

    doyouquaxu FUUUUUUUUUUUUU

    That's pretty gnarly. Electronic smoke is never a good sign!
     
  8. Scrambler82

    Scrambler82 Old Guy User

    Good to hear the house is still there.

    Going through the Power Company is useless, they ignore you until you go away.

    Start with your insurance company and see what they can do both with the replacement of the burnt up stuff and with the Power Company.
    Make sure your insurance premiums don’t go up… !
     
  9. OP
    Pbav8tor

    Pbav8tor Old Fart

    Update. The home theater is toast, turned off it ticks and makes the lights blink. Just unpluged it, rather safe than sorry. About half my light bulbs are dead, guess they didn't like being over powered. Have those spendy energy saving bulbs. I should check with PUD to see if they have any for free. Anyway, talked with PUD and they are sending me a claims form. They sounded like they are going to replace the damaged items but we will see. My homeowners insurance already went up this year.
     
  10. wyman00

    wyman00 5.0 Ranger driver

    Sorry to hear that, but I work for a power company and that happens all the time! When the hot wires rubbed through to the neutral wire, it sent voltage to everything that is grounded in your house...
     
  11. Demon

    Demon I take no prisoners!

    wow man please keep us informed on what happens. srry to hear but its better those things went up in smoke and not u or the house
     
  12. timbits588

    timbits588 New Member

    glad you're okay! hope everything works out with the insurance company
     

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