This last week we had a big scare at home. Late one night while working on our computers on opposite ends of our big farm house…my husband and I each saw flashes of flaming lights and heard a zzzzzappping zzzzzapppping sound from just outside of the house. The flashes of light/flames went all the way around the house quick as could be…and even went up the pine tree on the far side of the house. Boooooom everything went off.
Now, we live outside of the city limits…just into the country. It was dark let me tell you. Of course, because we had a campfire the night before the lighter that we use to light candles and such could not be found in the pitch black night. The flashlight had gotten moved earlier in the evening when the kids went out to get the chicken eggs from the coop. So, here we were trying to find some way to get some light. We finally found both the flame thrower and a flashlight.
I was able to call the electric company with my cell phone…because of course, the cordless phones in the house did not work without electric. Here is a smart idea…invest in a cheap regular phone to keep on hand for just such of an emergency. The electric company says they will send someone right out…which they do in about a half of an hour. I was worried about a fire hitting the wooden shake shingles of my very old house and lighting us up like a marshmallow at a campfire. Luckily that didn’t happen. Once the light/flames went around the metal edge of the drip edge under the eves of the roof of the house and the wire snapped…it stopped thank God! I had kids in the house so, it would have been double scary trying to get them out of the house and out into the safety of the vehicle with rubber tires. Thank God we did not have to worry about a fire…because i looked out of the window (instead of walking around the house out of fear of a downed wire) to see if there were any flames on the outside walls of the house. We were safe from that danger.
It seems that somehow water had gotten into the line where it had been spliced by the electric company a few years before and caused it to short out or some such thing because the wire had literally blown apart and was down on the ground. A downed wire. Can I just remind you how dangerous a downed wire is? It is lethal, people die very easily from not being aware of a down wire or not taking it seriously enough not to be out walking around when these things happen.
So here we are …the electric repair man and my husband are walking around…with my husband a few paces behind him. My husband is talking with him and walking very carefully because of the possibility of a downed wire…he is more careful than the electric man. My husband mentions that it could be a downed wire and he stopped in his tracks and shown a light on the wire…and sure enough…it was a few feet away from the repair guy. YIKES! These repair people are brave….but they have to remember to stay wise too.
He had to go get parts and another worker to help do this job…but i want to say that when storms come…these people are out on the front lines in some of the worst weather…restoring power to people who are in need. Thank you Repair men and women for the work that you do….please be careful out there. I know people depend on you…but, we all need to remember that it is dangerous work that you do in the course of restoring power for those of us without it when these things happen. Thanks for your commitment to your job and to the safety of your customers! We appreciate you.
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