I have the greatest husband ever. No, I really do. Not only is he just plain wonderful, but he is also my hero. Why? Well, let me tell you....
On Saturday, December 22,we were having our typical day. I was fixing things up for the Christmas baskets I was making and Tim and Jakob were doing their normal things. I had to leave to go to Wal-Mart and then I was going to swing by Chic-Fil-A to get us a bite to eat. While in the drive-thru line, I get a phone call from Tim. Before I could answer it, he hung up. So, I called back. WHen he answered, he was yelling, "HOLD ON! HOLD ON!" Now, I had just talked to him like 5 minutes before and he said Jakob was taking a nap in his room and Tim was finishing up his sermon for Sunday morning. So,of course, when I heard him yelling for me to hold on, I panicked, thinking the worse. I started yelling, "WHAT"S WRONG?" By this time, I was to the window getting our food. Tim said, "There's something on fire."
I said, "What's on fire?" Tim started coughing. He said the surge protector behind our TV caught on fire and there was thick smoke in the house. He was coughing. I told him to wrap Jakob in a blanket and go outside that I was on my way home. When I pulled up, Tim was holding Jakob outside. The lights were on in the house and it seemed that everything was fine. Tim had opened the doors and was letting the house air out.
Poor Jakob, he was in his diaper (he naps better like that, plus he had just eaten not too long before this) and his little eyes were so wide. I got out of the car and grabbed him from Tim and I could smell the smoke and the burnt surge protector so I told Tim to get back in the car with me. BTW, this happened about 5:00PM, so it was dark outside.
Anyways, Tim told me what had happened. He had been sitting there and all of a sudden, the lights started flickering. Now, we were supposed to get some thunderstorms, but they had not gotten to Meridian yet. When the lights started flickering, he heard the surge protector on our computer in our dining room. It sounded like it was frying. So he jumped up and ran to unplug it. WHile he was doing this, the surge protector behind our TV started doing the same thing. He didn't get to it in time though, and it caught on fire. We have our TV, DVD player, satellite, and a surround system hooked into that suge protector. The outlet was behind our entertainment center and was hard to get to. Tim thought about just getting Jakob and running out of the house. But, he decided that he wasn't going to let out stuff burn. So he reached thru the fire and unplugged it and started unplugging all of our appliance wires. He put the fire out and the carpet was burning a little too so he stomped out that fireas well. He threw the surge protector outside.
It was while he was unplugging everything that I called. He said the smoke got so thick, so quick, it was something he thought only happened in the movies.
While we were sitting in the car, the lights started flickering again. So, Tim ran back inside to turn off all the lights and make sure everything was off so nothing else would catch on fire. We didn't know what was going on. We called the power company. We called the fire department. We called a church member (since we live in the parsonage).
When we called the fire department, we called the emergency number listed in the phonebook (not 911). They didn't answer. We called 2 or 3 more times before they answered. Tim talked to a man who he didn't think was even a fireman. The man just said to flip the main breaker and shut everything off. I was shocked. They didn't even come out and acted like they weren't too concerned.
Our church member was the first to arrive, and he had to come from another town. He and Tim went back inside the house. It had aired out by the time he got there. He hooked his voltage meter up to an outlet, and it read 181 volts going through our house. He thought there was something wrong with his meter because the normal voltage was supposed to be about 120. He hooked it up to another outlet, and it read the same thing. Our church member suggested hooking the TV up to the wall, to see if it worked. It did. They turned it off and went through the house to see if anything else was damaged. Then the heard the TV frying, and ran back into the living room, and the TV was smoking. They unplugged it, and moved it outside in a hurry. Everything else seemed OK.
We waited like 2 hours for the power company to show up...no one came. Our church member called ANOTHER church member who worked in the main offices of the power company on the coast. He knew exactly who to call and not long after they saw a power truck drive by. They went down to the substation right down the street and was fixing whatever they had to down there. Tim and our church member said they could hear the loud sound of the man powering things down. By this time, a third church member had come to our house to pick me and Jakob up and take us to her house where we would be safe. It was about 7 or 8 at this time. The power comapny came after we had left. Anyways, the power company left and our church memeber checked the outlets again and the voltage was 124...back to normal.
Tim came to pick us up about 10. When we got home, everything was fine. It was like nothing had happened...except for the burnt surge protectors and the burnt carpet. Upon further inspection of our things, we now have 2 TVs that have gone out on us, and our DVD player is not working as well. We are talking to the power company about claiming all this, and when everything is finished, we will have new carpet and 2 new TVs and a DVD player. Plus, we just replaced our 2 surge protectors, and they will reimburse us for those as well.
The thing that makes me the most mad though, is the man that came out to fix the problem didn't even have the courtesy to come up to our house and let Tim know that everything was OK that he fixed it and to even see if we were OK. I mean, our house could have burned down 3 days before Christmas because of something that was obviously the power company's fault and they weren't even worried if anything was burned up because of them?? I was mad. And I told Tim that when they came out to look at the damages to our house, I was going to let them know about it too. He beat me to it though, and told the man on the phone. I will still let them know how sorry I think they are.
Anyways, so that is why my husband is my hero. Not only did he save Jakob, but he also saved the parsonage and our belongings. One church member said the next day that it was a good thing Tim was there or the whole house could have burned down, and maybe even the church (which everything at church seems OK) because we have gas tanks for our hot water heaters, and if they had blown up........................I told Tim it was a good thing HE was the one home and not me because I probably would have taken Jakob and gotten out of the house and let it burn. But thanks to my husband, our son and our things are OK. Pretty minimal damage considering what could have happened.
The power comapny better thank their lucky stars (as the saying goes).........
So the moral of this story is GET SURGE PROTECTORS for your
stuff!
No real damage though. The vending machine owner tried to back charge my employer for new machines but the owners said take a hike.
![[amer-ribbon90.gif]](/images/amer-ribbon90.gif "Remember our veterans and troops currently serving today.")