Slaughter Posted July 7, 2006 Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 Around 5 this morning I heard some noise from the kitchen. In afterthought it sounded sort of electric. Being half in coma however, I slept on without taking much note. A short while after.... *biip* *biip* *biip* Firealarm goes into frenzy. I hear my father getting up and walking down there however, so I ignore this as well. The alarm has malfunctioned several times over the last year, so I assume it's the "normal drill". Shortly after I notice the smell of smoke, and jump out of bed. As I near the kitchen, the smoke gets thicker. Getting in there I see my father working with disconnecting the indoor grill next to the stove. Somehow it has malfunctioned, and thus switched itself on! That in turn has almost put fire to a wooden plate placed on top of it. Now well, we disconnect the grill and get the alarm switched off. Checking around we find out that the fan above the stove isn't working, and one of the fuses in our fusebox is shut down. Putting it back on makes nasty noises, and it shuts down again. Not much we can do until the electrician comes. Sitting around the breakfast table, a neighbour out walking her dog comes knocking on the door: "Your fence is on fire""Say what!?""Really, it's one fire" So we follow her over to the fence, and right she is! The pole is more or less burnt to cinders, and the grass is scorched along the fence: Looking up towards the power line poles, we notice a guy working at the top of one. As the broadband company I work for is the daughter company of the company looking after the power lines, I know the guys. Walking up to them I see the power line lying on the ground....20 000 volts that has landed on our fence amongst others!!! Getting back from work today, I had a stroll along the fence. You've already seen where it hit ground in the pictures above, but there were traces all along it. Getting up to where the power line actually hit the fence, it looked like this: The last picture is MELTED ROCK! Following the power line to the source of this extreme incident... ...we get to the moral of the story. If you're ever reborn as a crow, never stretch your wings when sitting on a 20 000 volt power line! Lots of electrical equipment was fried in our house, and our neighbours houses. Good thing no one was holding the fence around the time of the line falling!!! I don't have pictures of the worst fried equipment we have, but the grill is retired (even if it might still be working, we never use it anyway). Oh, and in case you wondered, The Crow is dead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Accounting Troll Posted July 7, 2006 Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 You were lucky noone was hurt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Gringo Posted July 7, 2006 Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 Except the wingstretching crow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted July 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 Impressive that a crow can cause so much trouble! My brother speculates that my father shot it's mate, and that this is the revenge...kamikaze! (crows or the other related bird has lifelong partners) @Troll: Yeah, if some unfortunate soul had touched the fence before the power line was disconnected (it has fuses that should have done this long before the damage got so bad), he would have died for sure. The crow is relatively intact because it just brushed the power lines with it's wings, but someone coming in contact with the fence or the power line itself would have been evaporated more or less Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bomb Bloke Posted July 8, 2006 Report Share Posted July 8, 2006 Woah, and I thought the inside of my computer case was impressive. Of course, that's still working, charred as it is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kernel Posted July 8, 2006 Report Share Posted July 8, 2006 Huh? How can a crow bring down a powerline? And a hugh-voltage powerline at that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stun Grenade Posted July 8, 2006 Report Share Posted July 8, 2006 Maybe it had a gold necklace in its mouth and just did something zany Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorondor Posted July 8, 2006 Report Share Posted July 8, 2006 Holy cow, Olav. What a wake-up call !... A couple or so years back an absent-minded stork had about half (that's right - half) of Portugal without power for a good handful of hours. It's somewhat appalling in this day and age when a single bird can accomplish such a feat. In fact it bordered on amusing that power could so easily be disrupted in such a wide area. It just goes to show how wonderfully non-redundant the rickety network can be... :: The crow is innocent, though. A model 101 has been assigned to that location in Norway - the molten rock the result of its chronosphere's arrival in your space-time continuum. I have detailed files... "The future has not been written. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves. I wish I could believe that." - from Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines, 2003 motion picture Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shagpuss Posted July 8, 2006 Report Share Posted July 8, 2006 Just hope the crows acidental death policy pays out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted July 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2006 Huh? How can a crow bring down a powerline? And a hugh-voltage powerline at that? When the crow sits at one power line it's no problem. When it touches 2 lines at the same time however... This should only have shut down a fuse (and fried the bird ), but due to a problem it didn't kick in. Must have been an erroneous power line as well though, as it shouldn't have fallen down. @Thorondor: Hehe, good to know we're not the only one having the problem . Redundancy is only a good theory it seems... I'll keep my eyes open for T1000! Was it you that sent him...Skynet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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