Yesterday (Sunday, Oct 30) was already a long day. The Seahawks played poorly, and I spent the day fasting in prep for a medical procedure this morning. Most of the day was enjoyably spent with my buddy Steve recording a new original song Steve had written for Campfire Boyz (http://campfireboyz.org). It was a very pleasant distraction from the Hawks’ woes on the field. But without food all day, and feeling a bit light-headed, I was grateful for the prospect of a good night’s sleep. That all changed when we were startled awake by two successive explosions at 12:30 AM. We’ve seen this before when one of the electrical transmission lines blows a transformer on Union Hill Rd during heavy windstorms. But there wasn’t any wind this night…..
As we stumbled about in the dark, Diana claimed that she saw an “explosion/flash” in our back yard. I told her she was imagining it, it was just the transformer blowing and lighting up the sky, but she was insistant. I out that out of my mind as I undertook shutting down all the computers and beeping UPS batteries throughout the house. Next task was to go out into the rain donned in my bathrobe to fire up the trusty Honda generator. When I stepped into the garage I saw a funny light or glow, walked over to the man door at the side of the garage to see eight foot flames licking up the exterior wall of the garage near the power entrance. Oh SHIT!
If there ever was a time I wished I wasn’t wearing a bathrobe, this was it. Nonetheless, I stumbled across to the other side of the garage, unhitched the garage bay door from the opener and hoisted it open. I ran aroung to get a better look at the flames and assess whether I had a prayer of dealing with it. It looked like I could if I acted fast. Ran back to the open bay, grabbed the entire garden hose off the reel and cranked open the valves, grabbed the nozzle and ran to the fire. Squeezed the trigger……..nothing. CRAP! followed the hose back a ways and found a kink, back to the nozzle. Had pressure and blasted away. The fire was subdued before it reached the second story pine soffit.
While this was going on, Diana ran throught the upstairs of the house and yelled “FIRE” to wake Bridgette and Hunter, get them up and out of the house. Now they were all at my back while I continued to spray the charred, steaming siding. Diana was on the phone with 911 giving our address, and then she seemed sort of perplexed and said, “I’ll let you talk to my Husband”, and hands me the phone. That had to be one of the dumbest, arcane conversations I’ve ever had with what I assume was an adult. The dispatcher was asking waaay to many irrelevent questions to which I finally replied, “the fire out, no one is hurt, goodbye.”
So what actually happened. Well, being the sort do-it-yourself guy that I am, I have made numerous alterations to the routing of power for both the house and the pool over the last six years. I thought sure this was caused by something I had done…or not done. But such was not the case. When the firemen arrived, we studied the situation together. They had been called initially to address the new Camaro that had sheared off the power pole in front of our neighbors house, bringing down the 112Kw transmission lines on the side of Union Hill Rd. Apparently the hot wires hit the Broadstripe cable and the spike traveled all the way to our garage side door before it hit our ground rod and exploded the cablewire right next to Diana’s open house signs which were leaned up against the house. That’s how/where the fire started. It had nothing to with our power panels or service entrance. The entire thing started with that spike up the cable TV wire.
Had we not noticed the fire for another 10 minutes, it would be entirely different story I’d be writing. At least that’s what the firemen said. Great gentlemen, by the way. I thought sure they would take an axe to our siding and tear into the walls to make sure there were no hot spots in the framing. But I assured them that I would stand by, continue to wet it down and be sure that it completely cooled before going to bed. They understood and let it be, thank goodness.
What did we learn? Power really can travel down your cable and phone lines. What saved us i.e., kept that spike from traveling into our house and blowing up our low voltage closet is that innocuous little 12 gauge ground wire that runs from the heavy 8ft grount rods to the exterior connection block for the cable and phone lines. That little wire saved our house from a catastrophic fire. ALSO, don’t leave ANYTHING leaning up against the cable or phone lines where they enter the house. Had the open house signs not been there, there may not have been a fire at all, just a fried wire.
For all the adrenaline laced scare, we are truly grateful things turned out the way they did. I should also mention that Broadstripe Cable dispatched a crew to replace the cable from the street to the house today, and it’s already up and running. Awesome effort there. Even though your service often sucks and you don’t answer the phone on weekends, you came through in a huge way when it mattered most. Thank you Broadstripe!
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