Reunited with a big bang.

@olydove (1209)
United States
June 1, 2012 11:39am CST
WOW what a wild experience. So last night I went to see my cousin for the first time in about 24 years her name is Therese. I had only met her a couple of times when we were kids. Needless to say I was an hour late even leaving my house. I finally left home at just about 7:25 and got to her place about 7:45 so it's not a bad trip at all, and I had kept her updated that I was running late and bless her for being so patient with me. So I'm on my way to her house about 20 minutes from here, traffic is smooth everything's going great and I'm excited to finally get to see her again. I found her place just fine and was so happy when I got there I turned the van off BEFORE putting it in park LOL! Still had my foot on the brake thankfully. Then put it in park, grabbed the bag of stuff I brought with me and got out and locked the door. Well guess where my keys were? In the ignition. Yup I had a "DOH" moment. So I'm on the phone with my husband to let him know I made it there ok, going up the stairs to her place and that's when I realized I had left my keys in the van. I start to hang up with hubby and remember we have road side assistance thank god for that. So I had him go get his insurance papers out of his truck and give me the numbers to call. At this point I am upstairs and sitting on her sofa for maybe a minute and a half when all of the sudden the lights get super bright and you here this buzz sound as if it's traveling from one area to another, and then POP POP POP BOOM!! Fire sparking everywhere and major panic. I told hubby "I'll call you back" and hung up. Therese's sofa is directly in front of her living room window, with the back of the sofa facing outside to the street of course. The light pole outside is about oh 30 feet from her wall? So as the sparks are flying they are literally hitting the window and the side of the building. I told her husband to go turn the power off at the breaker and then we all needed to go outside just in case the building catches fire. So then I call 911 to tell them what's going on and ended up giving her husband the phone because I didn't know their address and such, this lady across the way is screaming her head off "Call 911 that sh** is catching fire call 911" and the dispatcher can't hear me over her yelling ( keep in mind this lady is downstairs and about half a block away ) so when I handed to phone to her husband I yelled to the lady that we were on the phone with 911 and she calmed down. Fire department was just right down the road so they were there quickly. Thankfully all they had to do was stick around and supervise until the Puget Sound Energy guys got there which took about an hour while this wire hanging from the pole to the building is on fire. The fireman says "Man I thought ya'll were lighting off fireworks over here" I then explained to him that, that is what I thought was that there were kids with a bunch of roman candles aiming them right at the window. I mean this literally looked like a firework showing aiming at our heads. So we all sat outside and chatted for a bit, in the mean time I call hubby back to let him know what happened then called American Family Insurance 24 hour line about the keys, and I'm still in disbelief about this whole situation. The customer service rep at amfam was awesome and handled everything for me as I'm trying to laugh and talk at the same time LOL! In the end I had a terrific visit with my cousin even though we sat in the dark for a couple of hours. We cracked jokes and talked about the past and so forth. It was nice. Unfortunately Therese's computer, refrigerator, and tv are all fried from the power surge. A computer she will have possibly tonight if not then for sure tomorrow I will take her and extra one we have here once my hubby gets it cleaned up, the fridge thankfully is her landlords responsibility, so all she has to worry about is finding a tv. There was some misfortune that happened with this of course the loss of her appliances and we had to sit in the dark, but at the same time I was so very very thankful that I was at a safe place where I could relax and was not alone when I left my keys in the van rather than being at a grocery store or something of the like. Also I'm thankful that nobody got hurt during the power fiasco. Had anyone been walking underneath those wires when it happened they could have been badly hurt. I so so thankful that I decided to go ahead and pay the $2 a month extra for the road side assistance on my car insurance, and I am happy that I was able to meet my cousin as an adult and while it was a crazy meeting it was exciting too. :-)
2 responses
@Thoroughrob (11742)
• United States
3 Jun 12
Wow, what a reuniting event. I am glad no one was hurt. Maybe you can get together again soon without it being so eventful.
1 person likes this
@olydove (1209)
• United States
1 Aug 12
Yeah, we have had a few visits since that were much more peaceful. Thankfully. Unfortunately I am seeing that my cousin is extremely emotionally unstable. Almost Bipolar, and it's taking a toll on me as she wants to call and vent for literally two hours or more. One day it was 6. I'm all for lending an ear and being there, but this is getting ridiculous.
@PageTurner (2825)
• United States
1 Jun 12
Wow! What an exciting evening! Sparks were definately flying on this get together. Sounds like you had great presence of mind in recommending the cutting off of power to your cousin's husband. It is a shame that all of their electrical equipment was fried. Is there anything they can do to hold the power company accountable for this and reimburse them their costs?
1 person likes this
@olydove (1209)
• United States
1 Aug 12
I believe the power company did offer to replace a few of the items that were damaged since it was casued by faulty wire, and not a natural event. :)