Reunited with a big bang
By olydove
@olydove (1209)
United States
June 1, 2012 11:45am CST
So last night I went to see my cousin for the first time in about 24 years. I had only met her a couple of times when we were kids. Needless to say I was an hour late even leaving my house. I finally left home at just about 7:25 and got to her place about 7:45 so it's not a bad trip at all, and I had kept her updated that I was running late and bless her for being so patient with me.
So I'm on my way to her house about 20 minutes from here, traffic is smooth everything's going great and I'm excited to finally get to see her again. I found her place just fine and was so happy when I got there I turned the van off BEFORE putting it in park. still had my foot on the brake thankfully. Then put it in park, grabbed the bag of stuff I brought with me and got out and locked the door.
Well guess where my keys were? In the ignition. Yup I went and locked my keys inside my van. So I'm on the phone with my husband to let him know I made it there ok, going up the stairs to her place and that's when I realized I had left my keys in the van. I start to hang up with hubby and remember we have road side assistance thank god for that. So I had him go get his insurance papers out of his truck and give me the numbers to call.
At this point I am upstairs and sitting on her sofa for maybe a minute and a half when all of the sudden the lights get super bright and you here this buzz sound as if it's traveling from one area to another, and then POP POP POP BOOM!! Fire sparking everywhere and major panic. I told hubby "I'll call you back" and hung up. The sofa is directly in front of her living room window, with the back of the sofa facing outside to the street of course. The light pole outside is about oh 30 feet from her wall?? So as the sparks are flying they are literally hitting the window and the side of the building. I told her husband to go turn the power off at the breaker and then we all needed to go outside just in case the building catches fire.
So then I call 911 to tell them what's going on, and ended up giving her husband the phone because I didn't know their address and such, this lady across the way is screaming her head off "Call 911 that sh** is catching fire call 911" and the dispatcher can't hear me over her yelling ( keep in mind this lady is downstairs and about half a block away ) so when I handed to phone to her husband I yelled to the lady that we were on the phone with 911 and she calmed down. Fire department was just right down the road so they were there quickly but thankfully all they had to do was stick around and supervise until the Puget Sound Energy guys got there which took about an hour while this wire hanging from the pole to the building is on fire.
The fireman says "Man I thought ya'll were lighting off fireworks over here" I then explained to him that, that is what I thought was that there were kids or something with a bunch of roman candles aiming them right at the window. So we all sat outside and chatted for a bit, in the mean time I call hubby back to let him know what happened then called American Family Insurance 24 line about the keys, and I'm still in disbelief about this whole situation. The customer service rep at amfam was awesome and handled everything for me as I'm trying to laugh and talk at the same time.
In the end I had a terrific visit with my cousin even though we sat in the dark for a couple of hours. We cracked jokes and talked about the past and so forth. It was nice. Unfortunately Therese's computer, refrigerator, and tv are all fried from the power surge. A computer she will have possibly tonight if not then for sure tomorrow I will take her and extra one we have here once my hubby gets it cleaned up, the fridge thankfully is her landlords responsibility, so all she has to worry about is finding a tv.
1 person likes this
2 responses
@Professor2010 (20162)
• India
2 Jun 12
Glad to know you reunited, hope she will get claim from insurance company soon.
ENJOY A HAPPY WEEKEND
Prof.Dr. B.Saraf. PhD
@PageTurner (2825)
• United States
1 Jun 12
I feel like I'm having the double vision. I could have been positive that I already responded to this discussion.
I suppose that they are not exactly the same.
It sounds like you had a good experience with American Family Insurance. How did they help with your keys?
Have you learned yet if your cousin will be reimbursed for their damaged electronic items due to the power surge? Surely the landlord might want to find out about this for their refrigerator?