About 11:30 PM, the transformer on the pole behind our house exploded. Besides being one hell of a bang and losing power, the top of the pole caught on fire and eventually burned in half, sending the crosspiece into the other wires. Unfortunately, the prevailing wind meant that all the embers were also blowing into our yard and possibly onto part of our new plastic flat roof. So I’m out there while waiting for the fire department to put the pole out with my garden hose spraying down embers and shooting water blindly onto the roof. Appears to have worked, as my house is fine. But I need to call the roofers and have them inspect it for damage. And the electric company is out there right now (they got there as soon as there was enough light to work) putting up a new pole. Hopefully we’re only looking at about 12 hours total without power.
Wish I had bought a gas grill already. I could be cooking breakfast on it right now.
Around 15 September 2001, I was walking from my bus stop to work when a transformer in the next block exploded. Freaked me the hell out for a few minutes.
A few days ago a transformer lost one leg near us, resulting in 66 volts to the house instead of 120. All the motor driven stuff like the refrigerator and A/C kept humming, trying to start. Some lights worked dimly. OK, I’ll wait it out. Turned off all motor stuff.
It’s really hot. And miserably humid. One hour. Two hours. OK, readiness drill time, haul the generator out of the shed. Note to self: check air in cart tires more often. Fortunately I keep the compressor full and an air tank in the shed for the various tires. Fill up tires.
Remove riding mower, walk behind leaf blower, snow blower and a bunch of hoses.
The last time I had it out I could walk fine. Now my knees won’t take pulling the 300 lb beastie, even if it does have a great cart with pneumatic tires. Back riding mower up to shed. Note to self, cart and mower have different hitches. Grab cart handle in hand and drive off slowly. Nearly yank left arm out of socket.
Drive the generator cart to the garage hookup point and connect natural gas line. Note to self: cover all gas line ends to prevent spiders next time. Go back to the shed and retrieve the battery. Hah! I had charged it not long ago. Go back to shed and retrieve exhaust system with muffler. Hook everything up, make sure the tie in breaker is OK and fire the Onan up.
Rr, rr, brumm - PATOOIE!! Smoking rags go flying across the yard. Note to self: next time remove rags stuffed in exhaust pipe to prevent mice. Stand back and admire the bright lights in the garage. Pity the poor neighbors.
I was working at the office by myself, and there was a flash of light that cast shadows through the blinds, along with a whistle from the phone on my desk, the overhead lights going out, and then a tremendous bang, that sounded like a hand grenade outside the door. All of this happened in maybe 250 mS. I thought “WTF?” and went outside to look. The building next door was on fire, but not too badly. As far as I could determine, the feeder line (~3KV) pulled loose from the old, rotten power pole, and fell on the house-voltage lines below it (and the telephone lines, too), then hit the case of the transformer, which blew the line in half (causing the bang). The sparks set the roof and yard of the building next door on fire. it took the power company a few days to restore power, and the phone company never was able to fix all the lines - they finally gave up after a week, and said we had to live with 4 lines instead of five.
Opening this Labor day weekend, from Michael Bay…
Transformer:
Y’know, The One Between Tijeres and Marquette In Albuquerque
(on that big pole with the tennis shoes hanging from the wire,
behind asterion’s house)
After a rare ice storm a few years ago I walked out on the driveway to see how slick things were. Just then the transformer across the street blew with a blinding flash of bright, blue tinged light and a loud BOOM!
When I was growing up in Louisiana, we had a typical bad thunderstorm one summer afternoon. Me, my little brothers and our nanny Lola were watching TV on an old school TV set (the ones that look like furniture). Suddenly, lightning hit the transformer closest to our house and the TV literally shot out a load of sparks straight at us. It was so loud that I was traumatized. It probably wasn’t the most sound idea but I put on my rubber boots and walked around checking things. The phones were gone, the microwave was blown out and some lights were gone.
We couldn’t call anyone and we lived in a very rural area so we just had to wait for my mother to get home. Meanwhile, elderly Lola just kept slowly rocking back and forth in her chair without saying a word. When my mother finally got home she asked Lola why she didn’t do anything and Lola said, “When lightning hits, I sits”. I still think that is pretty good life advice. Thankfully insurance covered most of the damage and we got a lot of new stuff.
I am a grouchy old guy who has lots of physical problems and damn little to laugh about. Your post gave me the first honest to God belly laugh I’ve had in too damn long. Thank you.
When I was 17 or so, one night I was driving into town (we lived out in the country), headed for a date, when ahead of me, down the valley, I saw a big flash of light. I know now that it was probably a transformer exploding, but at the time I wondered for a second if the Russkies had nuked Renton.
