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gemfyreOkay.
On Friday morning around 9am the power went out at our house. I was at work, Matt was home. Matt just shrugged, assumed it was due to the wooly weather we were having and went shopping. He came home and the power was still out so he called Western Power and lodged a fault.
I got home and the power was still out. Matt said his info was that it would either be fixed byu 7pm or the next morning. Strangely, both our neighbours had power. 7pm, still no power. I rang Western Power again and found out that there were some "faults in Karen-yup", time of them being fixed was unknown. We lit a lot of candles, I learned to play Upwords, it was kinda quaint.
During the night we heard more of these mysterious thumps, including a slightly louder boom around 5am.
Saturday morning, still no power. I rang Western Power again and the woman said to try back after 8am, they should have more info. I was delighted to find our hot water wasn't reliant on the electricty and had a hot shower. Matt rang then and discovered that the automatic line was giving us info for postcode 6018, we're 6021. He waited to talk to a person it was told we're in the queue, people who haven't had power since Wednesday were still being attended to. Fair enough. I just hoped the stuff in our fridge and freezers would be okay.
I was considering heading to my parents to do stuff, or go to the shops. We were sitting in the lounge room, I was about to head out when "BANG!" It shook the house and I were like, "What the hell was that?!" It had stopped raining and was now daylight (previous strange noises had occured at night), so I went outside to see if I could see anything to give us a clue.
I saw something alright. Smoke coming out from under the roof tiles. At first I thought it was just mist from the rain but quickly I realised it wasn't. I called Matt out to check it out and made my first ever call to 000.
They sent out two crews! A bit excessive but I guess, no-one really knew what the story would be. By the time the fireys got there most of the smoke had died down. They investigated and discovered a few things.
- There was a distinct smell of electrical burning in the roof cavity.
- The insulation had done an excellent job of retarding any flames. (There was no smoke whatsoever inside the house.)
- The electrcity conduit in our roof was still live.
- They couldn't do much because they needed Western Power to give authority to turn off the mains power to the house.
Matt called our agent and she got in contact with the owner and soon an electrician called to say he would be at our place within the next few hours. The fireys left, told us to just keep an eye on things and call again if there was more smoke.
Apparently the fire department called Western Power because suddenly two of their vehicles rocked up and a bit later another one. They did a bit of paperwork up and turned off the power to our house to prevent any further shorts, fires, electrocutions and whatever else.
So yeah, that booming was the power shorting out in our roof, for all we know a bit of smoke came out of the roof every time we heard it. We were just in bed and didn't see it.
The Sparky finally arrived and looked at things. Our neighbours had had some work done a couple of months back and the sparky said that our issues were either a co-incidence, or when they had their work down our line had gotten nicked. Nicked power cables, rain, moisture. It all resulted in our line being a charred mess.
Unfortunately, the sparky and the real estate agents were unable to find an electrician who had the right parts to fix it before Monday. BUT! The agent really went above and beyond and offered to collect our food to store it in fridges and freezers at her house and at fully furnished rentals with no tenants. She was even willing to find us alternative accommodation but that was unneccessary. As it was she somehow managed to get hold our neighbours who had gone out (after earlier letting me use their washing machine). The agents supplied to long extension cords and our neighbours provided two outdoor power points and our food was safe again AND we could watch TV and DVDs! We'd also moved the BBQ under cover and got that working. Very tolerable. We had JP and Angela over and wtached a couple of movies by candlelight.
Today I have the Crockpot plugged in and soup cooking. We're now at JP and Sair's stealing their internets.
So there you have it! Dramadramadrama!
On Friday morning around 9am the power went out at our house. I was at work, Matt was home. Matt just shrugged, assumed it was due to the wooly weather we were having and went shopping. He came home and the power was still out so he called Western Power and lodged a fault.
I got home and the power was still out. Matt said his info was that it would either be fixed byu 7pm or the next morning. Strangely, both our neighbours had power. 7pm, still no power. I rang Western Power again and found out that there were some "faults in Karen-yup", time of them being fixed was unknown. We lit a lot of candles, I learned to play Upwords, it was kinda quaint.
During the night we heard more of these mysterious thumps, including a slightly louder boom around 5am.
Saturday morning, still no power. I rang Western Power again and the woman said to try back after 8am, they should have more info. I was delighted to find our hot water wasn't reliant on the electricty and had a hot shower. Matt rang then and discovered that the automatic line was giving us info for postcode 6018, we're 6021. He waited to talk to a person it was told we're in the queue, people who haven't had power since Wednesday were still being attended to. Fair enough. I just hoped the stuff in our fridge and freezers would be okay.
I was considering heading to my parents to do stuff, or go to the shops. We were sitting in the lounge room, I was about to head out when "BANG!" It shook the house and I were like, "What the hell was that?!" It had stopped raining and was now daylight (previous strange noises had occured at night), so I went outside to see if I could see anything to give us a clue.
I saw something alright. Smoke coming out from under the roof tiles. At first I thought it was just mist from the rain but quickly I realised it wasn't. I called Matt out to check it out and made my first ever call to 000.
They sent out two crews! A bit excessive but I guess, no-one really knew what the story would be. By the time the fireys got there most of the smoke had died down. They investigated and discovered a few things.
- There was a distinct smell of electrical burning in the roof cavity.
- The insulation had done an excellent job of retarding any flames. (There was no smoke whatsoever inside the house.)
- The electrcity conduit in our roof was still live.
- They couldn't do much because they needed Western Power to give authority to turn off the mains power to the house.
Matt called our agent and she got in contact with the owner and soon an electrician called to say he would be at our place within the next few hours. The fireys left, told us to just keep an eye on things and call again if there was more smoke.
Apparently the fire department called Western Power because suddenly two of their vehicles rocked up and a bit later another one. They did a bit of paperwork up and turned off the power to our house to prevent any further shorts, fires, electrocutions and whatever else.
So yeah, that booming was the power shorting out in our roof, for all we know a bit of smoke came out of the roof every time we heard it. We were just in bed and didn't see it.
The Sparky finally arrived and looked at things. Our neighbours had had some work done a couple of months back and the sparky said that our issues were either a co-incidence, or when they had their work down our line had gotten nicked. Nicked power cables, rain, moisture. It all resulted in our line being a charred mess.
Unfortunately, the sparky and the real estate agents were unable to find an electrician who had the right parts to fix it before Monday. BUT! The agent really went above and beyond and offered to collect our food to store it in fridges and freezers at her house and at fully furnished rentals with no tenants. She was even willing to find us alternative accommodation but that was unneccessary. As it was she somehow managed to get hold our neighbours who had gone out (after earlier letting me use their washing machine). The agents supplied to long extension cords and our neighbours provided two outdoor power points and our food was safe again AND we could watch TV and DVDs! We'd also moved the BBQ under cover and got that working. Very tolerable. We had JP and Angela over and wtached a couple of movies by candlelight.
Today I have the Crockpot plugged in and soup cooking. We're now at JP and Sair's stealing their internets.
So there you have it! Dramadramadrama!
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 06:46 am (UTC)When our dryer at my parent's place blew up, the smoke was what basically got us saving the house from catching fire. But ever since then, I get paranoid when I smell smoke. *hugs*
no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 09:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 11:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-25 03:40 am (UTC)