We could have had a house fire Wednesday

southernlady

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Wellsburg, WV
We’ve been removing carpet. Had just finished pulling staples and tack strips in the living room. One room left. Anyway, I was also gonna make bread but in winter, you need more help to get the dough to rise, so I was using the crock pot. Had it plugged in. On the other side of the room, the coffee pot was plugged in but not in use. Charles plugged in the vacuum cleaner and started it up and all hell broke loose. Things popped, the CGFI the coffee pot was on, gave its life so did the surge protector the coffee pot was actually plugged in. In fact we lost about three surge protectors that day.

We were able to get an electrician out that day. Apparently the neutral in the main box coming into the house got disconnected, most likely from the heavy wind. We were sending 240 volts thru a house designed for 120. We lost quite a few lightbulbs, while Charles went down and turned the main off while we waited for the guy to show up. And with temps in the 30’s we also had no furnace running. We did have a natural gas fireplace. Because Charles still requires a cpap, replacing the outside box ASAP was a medical necessity/emergency.

We‘ve checked all appliances. If we had lost a big ticket item, our home owner’s insurance would have kicked in. Granted there would have been a deductible but at least we had it.

Back on Monday or Tuesday, Charles had a conversation with one of the staff in his sleep doctors office. One of the things she suggested was to plug the cpap into the wall not a surge protector. Glad we didn’t comply. His comment to her was “not a wise move in a house built in the 1930’s”. So not listening to your doctors staff sometimes IS the best option.
 
I have seen a video of what happens when…after a tree limb falls on electrical wires, and the electric company’s “automatic relay“ (akin to a circuit breaker) fails…and all the electrical energy goes into whatever is in its way “to ground,” (electricity is always trying to get into the earth)…and blows out whatever it encounters…through homes and businesses, for HOURS, blowing out EVERY electrical thing it located AND THEN…it blew the nails out of fascia boards on the houses.

Then I showed it to about a dozen firefighters who wouldn’t go away (it was already the end of MY day) until the video ended.

So glad you guys are okay and that you are not out many, many thousands of dollars.
 

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