Dave Hounddriver Posted September 17, 2012 Posted September 17, 2012 I thought you may all be interested in my day's excitement. My wife and I came home from the market at 5:30 to find a fire starting on our power pole. All the neighbors in the barangay are standing on the street watching, but doing nothing. I sent the wife to the neighbor who works for the power company so he could get a crew over here and they came pretty quick. In the mean time it was up to me to put the fire out. There is no fire department in the outlying barangays. Perhaps I could have called a firetruck from the town center, 10km away, but I chose to put it out myself by getting a sack of sand and a shovel and throwing shovels full of sand onto the fire. Unfortunately the fire is on a pole and the flames are working their way up over my head but I got lucky and got it out. The power company came within the hour and got us reconnected. There are 2 wires coming down the pole to our meter and they are close together and carrying 240 volts. Somehow they started arcing and that got the plastic insulation burning and it had the makings of a big problem. The power company replaced the wires with more of the same, still close together, still with the same voltage. One day it will happen again. Just wait for a while sir. Life is more fun in the Philippines but the power poles here are not safe. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jollygoodfellow Posted September 17, 2012 Posted September 17, 2012 Power pole still standing, nothing wrong with pole in first place; pole safe maybe wiring is not. Expat charged with sanding wiring. Possibility! :mocking: 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Call me bubba Posted September 17, 2012 Posted September 17, 2012 Could you see the headlines? Expat charged with sanding wiring. At least you were safe and had no injuries Thank you for the little bit of news and excitement that happened in your part of the RP 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i am bob Posted September 17, 2012 Posted September 17, 2012 Unfortunately the fire is on a pole and the flames are working their way up over my head What I would really like to know is where the heck were you standing? :mocking: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beachboy Posted September 17, 2012 Posted September 17, 2012 (edited) Sounds like you might need to keep a fire extinguisher handy -- the kind used on electrical fires. Maybe it's also a good idea to get an electrician to check the insulation on the wires every six months or so. :cheersty: (Also cut a big notch on the pole at the base on the side facing away from your house. Now if the fire burns through the pole, the pole won't fall on your house -- just trying to be helpful!) Edited September 17, 2012 by Beachboy 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyAway Posted September 17, 2012 Posted September 17, 2012 Not surprised to hear about this sort of thing happening. At the in-laws house they had two bare copper wires stretched across the yard to another house. Wires were 6 feet high and about 4 inches apart. Being nearly 6ft tall, I had to pay close attention and duck below them. When really windy the lines would sometimes get close enough to arc. Then they just turn off the switch. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeB Posted September 17, 2012 Posted September 17, 2012 Sounds like you might need to keep a fire extinguisher handy Given the frequency of fires and the uncertainty of any kind of response, fire extinguishers are a necessity. Almost any hardware store has them. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hounddriver Posted September 18, 2012 Author Posted September 18, 2012 Fire extinguishers are a very good idea. Especially with the way filipinas like to deep fry everything in an open pot over a gas flame. But thats another story. Next question: How to fit a fire extinguisher into the $800 a month budget referred to in other threads. A bucket of sand is cheaper and more . . . Philippine. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike S Posted September 18, 2012 Posted September 18, 2012 How to fit a fire extinguisher into the $800 a month budget Hummmmmm .... maybe quite rescuing so many of those helpless little brown ladies when the lights go out ....... :thumbsup: :hystery: :hystery: :hystery: :hystery: ...... just a thought ..... :cheersty: .... but then i suppose if the fire burns up the poles and the lights go out you will have MORE little brown ladies to rescue ...... I can see it now ..... news flash .... "foreigner caught setting fires to electric poles near club Rescue Me" ........ :mocking: 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthdome Posted September 18, 2012 Posted September 18, 2012 Fire extinguishers are a very good idea. Especially with the way filipinas like to deep fry everything in an open pot over a gas flame. But thats another story. 0hhh... nothing beats a Turkey deep fried in peanut oil for Thanksgiving. But there are many fires around Thanksgiving in the US from accidents with the deep frier. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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