Fireman are awesome

so. I'm asleep and on a plane somewhere near Iceland heading to AMS and my house got hit by a power spike from some very nearby lightning.  The fire alarm in my bedroom went off and my wife, alone with three kids, calls 911 beauxse there is a nasty smell( probably cable modem letting out its smoke). Anyway,  the fire department comes and goes over the  whole house. They find many breakers tripped and some plugs in the garage don't work.  They scan the whole house top to bottom with Ir camera and nothing crazy but  there is something the fire chief dosent like.  The crews went back to the firehouse and the chief stayed and kept digging for something.   He had a feeling something was wrong. The chief knows my wife is alone so he comes back the next morning and calls a buddy of his who is an electrician.  He waits until the guy shows up as my wife gets the kids to school and together they find a burned piece of Romex in the attic space next to my master over the garage.  Looks like we got lucky but that piece wire was stapled too aggressively and the power spike could have easily taken down the house.  He came back later to check on my wife on the way home.   Great guy. Fantastic dedication to the community. I'm glad to know he's around when I'm in Europe for work for a week. 

Now to replace all the random electric stuff that is breaking.  Garage door openers, coffee pot, phone chargers, new smoke detectors.  Etc. glad I have insurance as I'm sure more will die in the coming weeks. 

Ouch. BTDT and ended up replacing pretty much everything electronic in the entire house. 

It does take a special soul to be a fireman. I'm glad there are people in the world that are wired that way. 

Glad there was no fire. Also BTDT, only thing in the house that wasn't fried was the TV. When I got home from work house smelled like burnt plastic, phone wiring in basement had insulation melted off of it. I replaced the last of the old knob & tube wiring in the first floor ceilings after that.

Stuff like this makes me glad I rent but ownership is a good dream nontheless. 

Glad it wasn't worse. Had a similar close call earlier this summer; lightning hit so close to the house that it knocked a picture off the wall (!), started a fire behind the pole barn that was moving  into the pole barn when Katie and I gave up our efforts (naturally, the men of the family were traveling) and called the FD. They were awesome. And easy on the eyes.

Margie

I am assuming that more stuff with die in the coming weeks.  Hopefully we can keep it at a minimum, but we've already hit the $1k deductible. 

Always awesome when folks really step up.  Even better that someone made it ok for you to be off doing the works that supports the family.  I travel a lot for work and it never fails that things go sideways the second I’m 4hrs out on a trip to the other side of the world.

In reply to Marjorie Suddard :

So does that mean we get a 2018 spousal appeasement calendar with the last issue this year?  I get another year of the magazine and SWMBO gets a fireman calendar...

secretariata said:

In reply to Marjorie Suddard :

So does that mean we get a 2018 spousal appeasement calendar with the last issue this year?  I get another year of the magazine and SWMBO gets a fireman calendar...

Oh man, I certainly hope so.  

One more reason I hate Romex. 

Firefighters: when everyone is trying to get out, these guys run into the flames to save you.

I opened this thread fearing the worst - glad that wasn't the case.

In reply to secretariata :

That would be so great..,

In reply to Marjorie Suddard :

Well then, one of us may have the power to make it so and I'm betting that it isn't me...

glad your family and the place is safe. My nefew is a cadette on one of the local fire departments here and its cool to see him doing it.

Whenever I hear folks complaining about Firemen's pensions, and them making too much--- for too little work, I always ask:

" So, you'd run INTO a burning building to rescue people you've never met?"...... NO?...........Ok, you can shut up now.     

Joe Gearin said:

Whenever I hear folks complaining about Firemen's pensions, and them making too much--- for too little work, I always ask:

 

" So, you'd run INTO a burning building to rescue people you've never met?"...... NO?...........Ok, you can shut up now.     

There are all sorts of people that I really believe are underpaid, using that same logic applied to their professions.  By extensions, those are the people I DON'T complain about paying taxes for.   Unfortunately, they're always the examples paraded out to be politcal scapegoats.  I don't get it.

"So, you'd run INTO a burning building to rescue people you've never met?"

"So, you'd spend all day in a room with a lot of children from people you've never met?"

"So, you'd work to rescue a hostage and possibly get shot for someone you've never met?"

Etc, etc, etc.

Man that was a lucky dodge.  Time to stop by the Fire House with a a box of Bagels, coffee and a couple of six packs for later.

Tangent.  My wife is super careful about lightning.  she's been struck twice and is scared the third time is a eerrr, charm?  First time she was about 9 walking to school in the rain and got zapped.  She ran home crying and told her parents she'd been struck by lightning.  They didn't believe her until they tried to close her little pink  and clear vinyl umbrella and found every joint was welded solid.  Second time was in 1994 when our eldest was a baby.  Baby was napping, wife was planting some roses and could see a storm in the distance, but around the house it was still clear and sunny.  BANG, the tree about 10' from her was hit and got a big split in it.  She was blind and deaf for a couple of minuets, baby was screaming her little lungs out when my wife could function again.  Every circuit breaker was tripped, every light bulb in the house exploded and Insurance paid for a brand new furnace as that was totally fried.  No, neither of those were direct hits or she would be dead, but she has a healthier respect for lightning than most adults, which is good as she's a professional dog walker who is out side every single day in all weather.  

To paraphrase Mr. Regular: 

"A fireman is the best thing about someone's worst day."