How long was it before the fire dept pulled the meter????? I would assume that there was a neutral loss for a period of time - which started some appliance or device in the kitchen smoldering - then the meter gets pulled - a while later that smoldering that started eariler ignites - fire.... Far fetched - but from my experiance - it could happen....
Or - the use of gasoline and a match to collect insurance money is involved.
Dog getting shocked by phone line - I have an interesting story - which many have probably heard from many sources many ways.....
For entertainment value - here's mine:
I was working in phone terminal room in a building, and the phone guy walks in, we start talking and eventually get around to talking about wacky service calls we've been on. (This part is fact - the rest - I don't know) So he starts telling about this one - He goes to a service call where the owner claims that her phone has not rung in 10 years. He gets there and asks the woman why after ten years of her phone not ringing that she is only now calling to report it. She then tells him that she had a dog that would bark wildly whenever someone was calling - which she tought was neat that he somehow knew that people were calling - so she never reported it, and would even have people call and check as a novelty. People would call - the dog would bark - she would pick up the phone and people were there.... So he asks, "So where is this dog?" And she gets a little upset, the dog died a few days before, and she still wasn't over it, and she loved him so much.....
So the phone guy gets to work, and eventually traces the problem to a termination can up on a pole in the womans back-yard. There was a short to grounding terminal in the can from the tip side of the pair going to her house. He thought that odd because this short would not allow the phone to work at all - That ground must have some sort of problem - so he started to trace that.... A little further down the pole he noticed a worn spot on the ground conductor - it was worn all the way through.... 'Well thats wierd' he thought. He re-ran the ground fixed the short in the can and called the customer on his butt-set from the pole - the customer answered, and says, "Great - you fixed it! What was wrong?" And comes to the window where she can see him still up on the pole. So he tells her, "Well there was this short up here on the pole, but what was odd is that your phone shouldn't have worked at all, and there was the open ground wire down below.... Was there something around the pole before???" - She says, "Yes there was - my dogs runner was up there and ran all the way to the house." - The phone guy thinks to himself for a moment and says happily, "Oh, thats why your dog would bark - everytime the phone would ring he would get shocked in the neck - man that must of hurt... Ten years of getting zapped in the neck - WOW!"
He sees his customer burst into tears, and drop the phone..... Packs up leaves....
FYI a ringing phone is roughly 90v 20Hz - and hurts like 277 IMO.....
