Let's go back to March 8ish. My sister, Becca, was hanging out with her kiddo, Brooklynn, and Molly. A Murray power company guy came to the door and said we need to replace the meter box because it's melting. She passed on the message and I decided it sounded like a good job for the man of the house. Right? I mean, I wouldn't even know what the power guy was talking about much less remember exactly what needs to happen to tell Jeff about it. I love being married. He worries about and takes care of all these things. Thanks, husband.
Anyway, a week went by and we didn't do anything about it. The power guy came out again, on a Friday, and had to put a new reader on because it was time to bill. I went outside with him and looked at the melting, blackened box. He said he was nervous to put a new reader on because the wires were so fried and he was afraid of what would happen and made sure I knew that we needed to get it fixed ASAP. Like, as in, before we moved into the house.
I told Jeff and he was going to call the guy. Later that night, it smelled like burning plastic. Jeff asked if I had cleaned the stove with something. Nope. Just water. Jokingly, I said, "Maybe our meter box is on fire." Jeff thought the same thing and went out to check. Sure enough, flames are burning in the meter box. Which is ATTACHED to our house.
I was changing Molly's diaper and getting her in her jammies when I hear Jeff say, "Kyle, I need the number to the power company!"
I said, "Why?"
Jeff said, "Because there are flames in the meter box and we need the power company to turn our power off."
I said, "Um, I don't think the power company can help us with a fire!"
Jeff said, "Oh yeah. I should probably call 9-1-1, huh."
Yes. So, he did. The very kind firemen came to our home in the fire-fighting gear. While Jeff was on the phone with dispatch, the flames went out. The firemen were super nice. Super friendly. And there was not a fire for them to fight.
I said, "Sorry it's not a huge emergency and we had you come out here."
The captain said, "We'd rather have you call us when it's NOT an emergency before you really need us."
Well, the firemen used their little heat sensor camera thing to check for hot spots. The captain even hoisted himself up (in all his heavy garb) into our attic and checked up there.
In walks Kevin Gunnell. Kevin is amazing. He is a keeper of a brother-in-law. He came over at midnight the night all this stuff happened (the fire started around 10ish?) and looked at stuff and said he and Jeff could do it. I was a little worried because electrical stuff can be dangerous. But, they went to Home Depot and Gino in electrical was a saint and told them everything they needed and what they needed to do. Thank you, Gino.
Here are the fire captain and power guy discussing the issue.
Yay for the power guy turning our power back on with our brand new box!
ALL day on Saturday the 17th was spent with Jeff and Kevin working on our house. 12 hours later, we had electricity and a brand new meter box and reader. Molly and I spent the day at my parents house for a St. Patty's day shin dig. 1st ever. It was going to be at our house, but, uh, that wasn't really an option anymore.
The cupboards on one wall of the kitched had to be taken down. A new hole was made in the wall. Super tall Kevin spent the majority of the day cramped in the crawl space. It was an ordeal. Really, though, it could have been SO MUCH WORSE. We are so blessed that we discovered it when we did so we could stop using power and get things taken care of. One of those tender mercies.
Huge shout out to Kevin, Jeff, fire captain, Murray power guy, and Gino at Home Depot.
PS-- Our electricity is awesome now. It used to flicker if we turned on the microwave, hair dryer, space heater, etc... but not anymore. Hooray for that.
No comments:
Post a Comment