We had a minor emergency last night at my house. It seems that an old lamp had a bad wire. GS had been playing under the table that this lamp was on for a few days. We would always move him and tell him "NO". Well last nite when he was going under the table I asked DD2 to unplug the lamp and move it away from him. When she reached for the wire, it zapped her hand and it sparked and fire flew out of the outlet. She jumped back and screamed and of course GS screamed. So I reached for it to unplug it quickly. The the fire really came out! It broke the one plug metal off inside the outlet and burned the wall for about 6 " around it. The fire stopped but with the metal still in there, I was really worried that it would start up again. So while DD2 watched the outlet, I tried to figure out what to do. couldn't find a flashlight, didn't know what fuse to pull to cut the power. DH wasn't home...I didn't want to call the fire company, with 10 trucks and 30 volunteers on a snowy Saturday nite....I ended up calling a man from church who happens to be a fire chief in town. He was wonderful, he came right over and checked it out and took apart the outlet for me. He said we were very fortunate...the wall could have been burning inside because the outlet was still "hot" meaning had current in it. It never set off my smoke alarm...because there wasn't a lot of smoke...it just had fire spitting out of the outlet.
MORAL of the story...have flashlights ready for emergencies...check your lamps and wires regularly for breaks or frays. AND know where the fuse or breaker box is and which one runs which rooms.
I'm so thankful that my GS didn't pull that cord and get zapped really bad and my DD is fine. she had a tingly arm for a while. so this morning I went and bought new smoke alarms and flashlights.
Knit on thru ALL crisises
Dee
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