Yesterday we had an electrical fire in our block’s communal electricity circuit box. I had trouble sleeping because our brand spanking new Vornado fan kept shutting off …it was intermittent. I eventually got up and put the tv on for the news and it exploded …went bang anyway and all the appliances went off. I grabbed my rubber soled shoes and went downstairs to the circuit box to see if it was a fuse and saw some of my neighbours and realised it was across the whole building. While I was talking to my upstairs neighbour the whole box started flashing, then smoking…we talked…quickly …. then called the fire brigade as when we had our electrical fires in our flat the fire brigade said that the box was too dangerous to touch when there was a fire. By then though my neighbour had turned our and his electricity off but after the flashing we were too afraid to turn off any other flat’s electricity off at the box.
The fire Station is about two minutes away by road so they were there in minutes. At first they could not see what the problem was as there was no visible fire just lots of smoke. They did say though to unplug all our electrical appliances except freezers and we did that although it was too late by then for most of the people’s precious and expensive goods. While waiting for the electricians to come to the building the firemen went through the building to ensure none of our electrical goods were on fire. A lot of people had to leave to go to work including my neighbour opposite. She also wanted to get her little toddler away from the smoke. She left the dog in the unit but she told me where her spare key was kept in case the firemen had to get into her flat. After a little while there was a second wave of smoke and my neighbour raced to get the key to the flat where the dog was by herself…we raced up and got the dog out as the smoke was quite bad by then. The poor dog was most distressed and very loving and affectionate!
The fire captain stayed with us for over an hour , he said massive amounts of power were coming into our building and we needed to find out why. He also said he would write a report stating that our fuse box is unsafe and needs to be upgraded. Something they would not do even after our two electrical fires several years ago. We have since paid to have some upgrades ourselves as our son was almost unconscious when the first fire occurred. The Energy Australia electricians were here for some hours and isolated the electricity…turned it off …and said that our body corporate would have to arrange repairs. They also said it was likely that all electrical goods in our building were fried. As it could take hours to do the repairs and we were assured it was now safe my son and I went back to bed. Sometime over the next four hours someone came and made the repairs and when we awoke we tried to see which of our electrical items were salvagable. My son tried the tv first naturally and got a dreadful electric shock so I phoned the body corporate and they sent the electrician back out to check out each individual unit. We discovered by trial and error and another electric shock for CJ that our appliance extension packs which have surge protectors on them were fried and were causing the shocks and we only lost those and one set of ceiling lights…we think anyway.
Our neighbours weren’t so lucky…some flats lost all their HD TV’s… some brand new and all their electrical equipment including fridges and microwaves. To top it off the body corporate and their personal contents insurance does not cover this. My neighbour upstairs lost her ducted air conditioning and all her electrical goods. At present they are trying to find a way around it. We have a few good things out of this …no one was harmed and we got to know what neighbours we can rely on and my son knows he definitely wants a dog!
Update on charity shop fiasco
Today I went into the charity shop where I asked to speak to the manager about the bag of fabrics which was given to me when I was in there last. He said he did not know anything about it and as he is getting a really bad deal from his staff since taking over we are not sure if someone is trying to set us both up ….his staff are not happy since he arrived and they have hated me since I raised this issue last time I was given bags full of perfectly good donations. He asked me if I would speak to the area manager on the phone to clear it up which I did but I do not remember if I even got that far as she basically kept saying that I was in the wrong for taking the goods out of the store and kept quoting how I had compromised myself and my husband as well. After hearing that spiel for some time I said I did not appreciate having my husband’s job being brought into this and it was surely the responsibility of the staff not to give the goods in the first place. No way … did not matter it was all about my actions and how I took them out of the store and how I did not pay until the next day…well after telling her repeatedly they would not take any money then, believe me I tried as did my husband. I then burst into tears…..something I never do. This is in front of a whole store of customers.
The manager sat me down and tried to give me water and talked me through it but I said as it stands I do not feel I can come here again and I resent what she said about my honesty. Also if I was set up or he was then I really do not feel inclined to give that store my business. I guess I was still emotional from the fire and was more upset than I had realised because my son said he knew something had happened because my face was still flushed hours after I spoke to them at the store. I sent an email expressing my distaste for the area manager’s treatment of me to her boss after I spoke to my husband and son. They are not surprised but my son said “stay out of that store mum they employ fucking crazies there”…he never wanted me to forgive them as I tried to do after the way they turned their backs on me in the store after the previous incident. So I guess you can see why I was a little bit teary?
