All’s Well That Ends Without a Forest Fire!

I called 911 this morning.

Right after I called the electric company to tell them that a dead tree from the back of our yard had just fallen onto the power lines behind our property.

The power went off and then back on three or four times, each time with a tremendously loud BANG.  And each time with a great big burst of light that Russ says was an arc.  (Like balls of lightening behind our yard!)  It was very scary and very exciting. 

After I was done making my phone calls I went a little closer to check out the situation.  And of course to take pictures.

I wondered if we might need to evacuate the trampoline (move it closer to the house) when I saw the smoke coming from the tree.

Pretty soon the firemen arrived.  They said that they couldn’t do anything because the power was still on. 

(don’t you love it that my kids are well-trained enough that two of them ran out front and took pictures of the fire truck?)

(Hello, lady at the electric company, why did you tell me to call the firemen??)

Then the guy from the power company arrived.  He was impressed by the smoke, and told me to be glad it was a dead tree that had fallen.  Apparently trees that are still green conduct electricity fairly well and are a lot more dangerous.

His co-worker shut down the transformers on the next street, he cut the tree off the lines, and then we were back in business.

It was all very exciting.

 

Things we are thankful about today:

• That I was home this morning instead of visiting teaching.
• That several of us saw the tree fall & knew what was happening.  (We were watching the birds at the bird feeders.)
• That there’s been a lot of rain so everything was nice & wet instead of dry & very flammable.

Tender mercies indeed!