Friday 9:30 am. I’m checking my e-mail when the power goes out with a noise
Is it the whole house or just one circuit?
It’s the whole house. I go out side to see what’s up. I smell smoke.
Does the smoke have something to do with the outage?
I look across the way to my neighbor’s where a crew has been cutting down avocado trees. There’s a fire. Luke is in the shop so I go up to find him.
Does the fire have anything to do with the outage?
Luke’s on the phone.
Is he calling 911? No.
He gets off the phone. He knows the power is out. He sees the fire.
Holy Shit. There’s a power line down. That’s the cause of the fire.
Luke realizes that there’s another fire on our end of the downed power line.
Oh Fuck!!! It’s only 30 feet from the house.
Luke says “Get the extinguishers. I’ll call 911.” I grab an extinguisher and run toward the fire. But there’s a downed power line there.
Oh fuck!!!
I see the line across another line. This is a 12,000 volt short.
If the line were still hot there would be some serious arcing going on.
The fire is about 20 feet in diameter in some dry grass. The extinguisher does some serious good. Luke arives with another extinguisher. I go for more. We get the fire almost out. But there is still no action around the other fire. I drive up to the neighbor’s house. The sheriffs are there. Then the fire department. I tell them of the other fire. They think this was an illegal burn. I tell them it’s a downed power line. They can’t do anything until they are assured the line is turned off. When it is they start to fight the neighbors fire and send a crew down to my house to verify that we have successfully extinguished the fire there. They also check for any other fires. When the fires are out the electric company can start working. One electric company guy is taking pictures.
Are you going to send somebody a bill for this? “That’s the idea,” he assures me. The bill won’t be for me. I’m the victim here.
Friday 10:30 pm. Power is restored.
Pieces of luck. Luke and I were at home. I’d just had most of the weeds cut and piles of dead brush removed. Nobody was electrocuted. I didn’t lose my house.
Thanks to the fire agencies and to SDGE.
Replies
At least it wasn't a dull day for ya.