May 13 the BIG BOOM

It has been a busy week here at the Bailey house.  Southern CA Edison put in a new power pole in our backyard.  Yes our neighborhood is so old we have above ground power.

Pile of dirt from the hole dug.

Monday:  Guys came in and dug a 7 foot deep hole next to the old pole to make the removal easier.

Tuesday:   Alpine Avenue is blocked off as the crane people showed up.  A truck hauling the new pole showed up.  I was at the quilt guild but got to see all the video pictures Bruce took.  Apparently it took over an hour to get the old one out.  It was not buried 7 feet down but over 10 feet.  When our house was built (1965) behind us was an orchard.  When they built the house behind us, they put in an 8 foot retaining wall and leveled off our yard, burying the pole another 3 feet or so.   After the pole was out, power was cut and the new pole was lifted over our house and put in place…this time only buried 7 feet down.  Re-hooked all the wires and put new wires down to our house.  Looks so much cleaner.

That's the meter at the foot of the lounge

Wednesday:  8am I was in the kitchen packing a lunch for a quilt class I was taking. Standing next to the refrigerator I heard a LOUD POP and the power went out.  Thought it was the refrigerator exploding inside.   We went outside and saw that the transformer box 4 houses down had exploded and was on fire.  The fire went out quickly.  Then we walked in our backyard and our electric meter and the cover to the circuit breakers had blown off the wall and landed 6 feet away.  The stucco was all singed from the explosion. 

I packed up the freezer items and took them over to Alissa’s on my way to class.  Later Bruce took the rest of the refrigerator food over.

When I got home at 4 the entire street was full of Edison trucks, H.S.M.A.T. personnel.   The HSMAT guys were cleaning up the oil and chemical spill in the White’s yard and the people behind them.  I believe the White’s lost 2 trees because they were covered in chemicals from the explosion.

The power was out throughout our subdivision; the street light and even 4 blocks away at the Jack-in-the-box.  They got a generator out for the traffic light and the power came on at the far end of the subdivision within minutes.  But our street was out for the duration.

Bruce said that almost every Edison guy came through our backyard to look at the damage and take pictures. None of them had ever seen a meter blown off a house before.  Lucky us.  We’re famous. :)  

Neighbor had given Bruce a name of a good electrician.  Bruce called and the office said he (the owner) had just left a job in Ventura and was heading back to Camarillo.  She called him to tell him what had happened, so he turned around and came right out.  Told Bruce he had a job scheduled for Thursday but would text the client (sent pictures too) and ask to reschedule till Friday.  He got a call right back from his client who said “OMG, of course, I can wait”.  Michael Adam’s owner of Infinity Electrical, said they’d be back first thing Thursday morning.  He even scheduled a stucco guy to come out to repair the hole they were going to have to make.

By 6pm that night the neighborhood had power again; except for us.   We went out for pizza and a beer and came back to a very dark and quiet house.  You don’t realize how many things  hum until they aren’t there.

Thursday:  Electricians showed up about 8am.  I can’t say enough nice things about these guys.  So careful and thorough.

They attached a power line so they’d have power to do their work.  Got the stucco cut away and pried out the old box.  Got the new box part way in when it started to rain.  And not just a bit but a down pour.  We’ve been in a drought situation for years and today is the day we get a rain storm.  They had a pop-up canopy to put up while they worked.  And later left it there for the stucco guy.  As I’m writing the stucco guy is still working.  This one little paragraph covers a full days work.

     

New Box and prepared for Stucco

The power actually was back in the house by 3:30pm, except for the outlets along the north side of the house – two bedrooms and my sewing room. By 5 it was all fixed.  Bruce had gone around and unplugged everything yesterday.  After the power was on, we went from room to room with a clipboard.  Turned on overhead lights, checked outlets, and started plugging things back in.  Here is what we loss:

Refrigerator

Dryer

Water Softener

Water Filter

Garage Door Opener

1 Electric Picture frame

His laptop power cord

My tablet cord

3 surge protectors
Electric Blanket (the kind they don't make anymore)

The two surge protectors gave their lives and saved my laptop power cord, Annabelle (my Longarm machine), 2 TVs, DVRs & DVDs, phone, and Internet modem.  We are so grateful that it wasn’t worse.  Oh, and the furnace seems fine too. We were told that it may take as much as a few weeks to make sure everything is working properly.  Edison said not to rush putting in a claim till we were certain.

I think it was because the dryer and refrigerator were on at the time of the explosion is why they “died”.   So tomorrow we begin the process of replacements and/or repairs.  I’m hoping we can get a repairman out soon.   The electrician said we should run the vacuum using each outlet to make sure that they’re drawing good power.  The transistors on the cords to the softener and filter were very hot when the electrician unplugged them.  It may be that all that will need to be done is to replace the cords (they're hard wired in) and not the entire units.

Good news is I’ll be able to bake cookies for Alissa’s purse party tomorrow. :)  You have to have your priorities set right. 

Stucco will go on next week after the inspector comes out on Monday and the rain stops.

You just never know what will happen.  Just have to make the best of things.  I will urge all of you to get good surge protectors for you major electrical items.  I don't mean cheap little power strips with on and off switches.  The ones we had we got from Costco.  Think they were 3 for $30.  The one we had in the TV room didn't fry for some reason.  And it had 8 things plugged into it.