This is completely off topic, but I wanted to see if anyone else had a similar experience. This past weekend, i had a near death event that involved me, my home, heavy rain and a downed live wire that came off of my house.
To set it up a little bit, i live on a dead end near the woods, my driveway is actually behind the home which you have to drive down a dirt road to come around into the driveway. With hunting season, the road is loaded with trucks and a ton of hunters. On this day, it was raining heavy and the road was packed with hunter's trucks.
I was sitting in my living room, putting batteries into Christmas animals that play music for the holiday. Suddenly i hear a massive bang that sounded just like a shotgun right outside near my porch. I know that the hunters go in the woods but i thought possibly one decided to not follow the written rule of being so far in before shooting their weapon. So I get up, throw on a jacket and head out onto my porch. I do not see anything on my porch that is out of the ordinary, like a stray bullet in my wall. Looking over the porch, I see all the trucks but no one around.
I decided to go around the side of my house and check the side wall and in the back yard to figure out where the bang came from. Coming off the porch is 4 12"x12" stepping stones that lead into the yard. They are not fully secured in the mulch, so i always look down to make sure I stand on each one. i made all four stones and my next step was going into the yard. I was lucky to be looking down because my step would have brought me down onto a wire laying in the yard. I almost lost my balance when i saw it but caught myself and stayed on the stone. I backed up and when inside.
I called my electric company and 911 because my house at this point at lost power to half of it. I ended up having a firetruck, ambulance, police cruiser and an emergency dispatch vehicle at my home before the electric company even got there since it was a weekend. The firemen told me I needed to stay in my home, along with the three houses on the dead end street. They checked the wire and it was completely live.
Sorry for rambling, but the point of the story is that the electric company and the fire department told me that if i took that last step, I would not be here right now telling my story. The guy from the electric company said that the load bang was the wires touching as the one came off of the house. He also said the wire could have electrified the yard or started a fire based on the rain and the explosion.
I guess it has not hit me completely yet. I was basically a half step away from death and looking on it now, would not have anything in order for my family if something did occur. I was just lucky I happened to be looking down or I would have stepped right onto the wire and would not have had a chance to survive. I need to get things in order and be prepared because anything can happen, including something that is right outside of your home and out of your control.
Please comment on the story or let me know if you had a similar experience that you would like to share. Like I said, maybe it has not sunk in completely yet but talking about it releases some of the pressure on my mind. Thanks for listening.
