Been there. I’m just glad it was before we started washing there. The drizzling rain let us know the wire was worn. The couple in the house said the power had been flickering over the last couple rains. They were lucky the house didn’t burn down prior. We were lucky we didn’t spray it and electricity found its way back to the trigger gun.
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Everything. Rubber glove over the cameras. Tape and bags over everything. Then we take pictures so the customer can see that it’s been done.
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Being a firefighter and my full time day job is safety officer (head of safety) for Western Illinois University I knew better lol. Would have been pretty bad for a safety officer to die using water on 240 vs dry chem extinguisher lol
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We don’t mess around. Lol
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Rubber gloves are a great idea! kinda expensive though! I guess they can be reused a few times.
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Harbor Freight. They’re so dirt cheap and easy to use it’s worth the slight increase in cost. A lot of times we’ll just stretch it over the trim ring and put a piece at the top to redirect water down the sides.
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Note: the only reason we went overboard on that power meter was because the insulation was cracked. That’s not typical.
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I was wondering the same thing! Seemed like a lot of work!
You wanna talk pood pants try walking under a line that blows 3 foot blue flames 6 foot overhead lol. I didn’t have enough SH in overstock to clean them undies!
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Well played gentlemen! All safe and lessons to share.
I had a similar experience - At a home made of a couple of separate buildings built into the side of a hill with a pool between them. There was a very small crack where the pool paving met the wall of a building (not unusual) and it looked like it was ground level. It wasn’t. Water followed the wall down past the paving and into another wall (that you wouldn’t know was there unless you went inside the lower level garage) and then found it’s way into a secondary power box (the main powerbox was elsewhere). Sparking & Fire & Smoke!!!
From the other side of the house I could hear the sparking, upon investigating I could see & smell smoke coming from the rear of the garage (that was built partially into the hill). Open opening the garage door I was engulfed in thick black smoke. The grandparents in the house above came out so I got them out of the way and to call emergency services while I emptied my fire extinguisher, plus another. I ended up needing the hose to put out the flames, with just a wall partially damaged.
The short circuit tripped a fuse on the street which called the electricity company, plus the police, fire & rescue and ambulance. Quite a show.
The owners were apologetic, as they knew the secondary powerbox was a potential problem (it had been on their list of things to fix for years), and thankful that I got the grandparents out of the way safely. The house couldn’t be lived in until the powerbox was moved, the wiring repaired & the smoke/extinguisher powder cleaned-up - not cheap, but they admitted it was their fault. They even bought me a replacement fire extinguisher.
Quite a day!
Stay alert & prepared.
John
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Holy smokes your at Western Illinois University? One of my good friends from the Army goes there. I went down and visited him in Macomb for the homecoming football game. That school knows how to party, holy shit. I’ve been to plent of campuses and football games but nothing like WIU. I go to Macomb every few months, he was one of my team leaders when I was a squad leader. Good kid
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Yes sir I work here full time!
well 37.5 hours a week lol
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Whenever I think of Western I think of when I was in high school we had a basketball tournament there. Since we had multiple games over a couple of days we stayed in a hotel. A few of us snuck out and went to the Purple Pride and got sloshed. Another friend drove there and knew a bouncer or something so was able to get in. On the way back to our room we must’ve been too loud or the coach just knew we were gone and caught us. As soon as we walked past his room his door flew open. He got on us a little that night but never said another word after that. I still remember my buddy saying we walked to the Hy Vee to get some aspirin or for a headache. There was a trail through the woods that connected the hotel to the grocery store. That was probably 20 years ago so not sure if that bar is even there anymore.
I had a buddy who played football at Western. We always liked going when they played Southern IL. Talk about a drunk fest. We always had a blast. I think years back Western was voted one of the best colleges to party at in the whole country.
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We were once known world wide for our parties! Adams street was a trademark of the drinking college tradition. We were at one time the Keystone Capital of the USA lol more keystone beer sold here than any other location. I helped with that 10 years ago.
Purple pride is gone. the hy vee you speak of is now owned by WIU and we use it for a daycare and tech support stuff. New hyvee building in town. I know what hotel you are referring too. My office is right down the road from where the old hyvee was.
These students don’t party like we used too… Kinda sad lol
It sure does look different but I don’t remember much about that weekend. I didn’t view it from the front though like in the picture. The thing that really sticks out is walking the wooded trail and our coach catching us and not saying a word about it. My parents would’ve grounded me for life if they would’ve found out I snuck out and got drunk. My mom was good friends with my coach’s wife and babysat their daughter so he could’ve easily told them even if he didn’t get the school involved. I was nervous for probably a month wondering if anything was going to happen…lol
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Your College finances buses to pick and drop students off at the bars lol
Thank God for this post! Had a bad outdoor receptacle spark and smoke. The GFI was getting wet for years and rotted out so it wouldn’t trip and the breaker in the house wouldn’t trip for some reason. I almost missed it. While putting planters back on porch I heard a weird noise. Opened outlet cover and it was sparking and making arking sounds. Then is started blowing black smoke! I just put a dry chem extinguisher on trailer 2 days ago. Used that to shoot it around and in it receptacle. It didn’t do anything. I called the customer and got key from secret spot and got into the house to turn off breaker at the panel but by then it finally tripped. Luckily the wires going into wall were good and it was contained to the box. First day training 2 new guys. Good teaching day… lol. Told them don’t spray it with water. Well next house they were scared to spray anything with a wire… haha.
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