house fire , started by electrical being turned back on after storm

[meternerd]

Turning off the main sounds like a good idea, but...how does the homeowner tell when power has been restored? Especially if there are no close neighbors. If he turns on the breaker and something fries because the POCO isn't finished patrolling yet, is it his problem or the POCO? We usually tried to get the distribution lines up first while meter readers or electricians (me) went around investigating down wire, trees in secondary, etc. We usually cut the damaged services at the pole to prevent potential damage when the power is restored. But....some homeowners are "impatient" and want their problem fixed NOW! We had a guy that decided he was going to cut the tree off of the hot service drop himself, and managed to hit himself in the head with a broken tree limb....died in the hospital a couple of days later. His wife tried to sue us, saying our delay in cutting HIS tree off the overhead drop caused his death. We will do a disconnect at the transformer if the service is torn down, but we don't enter private property to clear downed trees. We will do a free reconnect only after repair, which usually requires an inspection and tag by the AHJ. Storm damage always has unknowns, but it seems like the power company is always the first one who gets blamed. Am I biased?....probably. Do I leave my main on during outages....yup.

 

[drcampbell]

... Who knows what really started the fire? If the insurance company wants to send out an investigator they could possibly find out ...

... The Rhode Island Fire Marshal's Office is investigating the cause ...

The homeowner, meanwhile, has shared a random, unfounded speculation with the television news crew.
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... how does the homeowner tell when power has been restored? ...

If the house has a smart meter, you can see the display come back to life.

 

[ggunn]

If the house has a smart meter, you can see the display come back to life.

Yeah, I'll go around the side of my house in the dark with a flashlight and stand there waiting to see the meter wake up... NOT.

 

[Buck Parrish]

Turning off the main sounds like a good idea, but...how does the homeowner tell when power has been restored? .

We leave a note no the door. We leave the main outside off , just in case a stove was left on. If we have access to the house we'll turn the main on. Take a quick walk through of the house to make sure it is safe to leave.