Blaze

Because of Hurricane Irene, the electricity in my house has not worked since either Friday or Saturday. I'm not sure which. When I returned home Sunday afternoon, everything was off.

It finally got fixed tonight. I drove by my house from the store on the way to visit Nicole, and noticed that lights were on in the house. My initial reaction of "oh thank goodness, finally" was quickly replaced by "oh NO" as I realized that the powerlines were sparking. I continued down the street, monitoring the scene in my rearview mirror, and was startled to notice showers of sparks raining down and smoke pouring from the lines as a few small explosions happened.

I had to act quickly. After the house survived the hurricane, here it was about to perish in a blaze caused by the electric lines running down the street?

Because I had called to report my outage earlier, the number for the electric company was still in my phone. I spoke to a representative, who informed me that I needed to go tell the nearest crew ASAP and that from there someone would also contact the fire department. Her voice emphasized the seriousness of the matter as she explained "if something is not done quickly, we could have a large-scale fire on our hands."

I raced over a few streets to the electric crew currently at work. The Dominion Power representative was still on the line with me. As I reached the work crews and looked up, the lines overhead began to spark. Only a moment later, the sparks stopped as flames began racing down the power lines. I told the lady on the phone that the lines were the same where crews were already working, and she informed me that she would call me back if anything important came up.


So scary.