Breaker panel!!!

[bersaguy]

I'm able to post today per a generator as I had a fire in my 200 amp breaker box Sunday night about 2AM. Rosie, my basset hound came and woke me as the smoke detectors on that end of the house were sounding. I went and put it out and had to use a flashlight to move around in the house. I keep 4 ABC fire exstingshers scattered through out the house. The panel is trashed and will be replaced starting tomorrow morning and the electrical contractor said I would be off the generator and on main power by Friday.  He gave me a price of $1,500.00 and said that would be a very close estimate so I'm expecting more but we will see. The man is local and been doing these repairs for 40 years and comes very 7 highly recommended. I guess time will tell. My son-in-law got a big generator from work and 7 -50 foot extention cords to run things in the house and got 4- 5 gallon cans of gas. Could have been a lot worse.

[gregintenn]

Sorry to hear that. Any idea what caused it? Loose connections perhaps?

[MacGyver]

Glad you’re okay. That could have been a lot worse. 

[RED333]

Dogs are great, glad you’re OK Doug.

[bersaguy]

22 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

Sorry to hear that. Any idea what caused it? Loose connections perhaps?

Well according to the electrician the main issue was age for the overload because it was the main breaker that caught on fire. He said due to the fact that it was the breaker that was put in when the house was converted from a garage to a house 20+ years ago and last summer a new Central heat and air unit was installed and the main breaker should have been replaced at that time. He said he has seen the same thing many times. He said any time someone adds a new large appliance to their home they need to replace. He said in was in the teens Sunday night and the heat unit was working to hard on the old breaker. He said he was surprised this did not happen back in January when it was down near zero. 

[bersaguy]

10 minutes ago, RED333 said:

Dogs are great, glad you’re OK Doug.

Yes dogs are great for sure and I taught her to come to me if and when a detector starts beeping and she did come to me and start barking to wake me up. The ones I have all over the house operate on batteries and when a battery gets weak the unit chirps and I can't hear the chirp but when she comes to me and gets my attention I know what she wants and I replace all 8 batteries because I don't know which one is bad.

[BigK]

A few years ago, we lost our whole house due to a fire. We were in a rental for about a year and it sucked. So, I'm really glad this story wasn't worse for you and thank the Lord nobody got hurt.

[AuEagle]

Glad you're OK Doug!!

[bersaguy]

48 minutes ago, BigK said:

A few years ago, we lost our whole house due to a fire. We were in a rental for about a year and it sucked. So, I'm really glad this story wasn't worse for you and thank the Lord nobody got hurt.

Sorry to hear about your loss as it is terrible to see a home burn. Glad you and your family got out. I was a volunteer fireman for the Donelson-Hermitage Fire Department for 5 years and I saw a lot of loses but our response time was so good we saved many homes that lost maybe 1 or 2 rooms and were able to rebuild. I learned a lot while I worked for them. 2 things the Chief pushed hard on people was smoke detectors and Fire Extingushers in every home and know how to use them. I put my fuse box out with one of the ABC's I have all over the house.

[tacops]

Glad to hear you and Rosie are OK. Sounds like she deserves a few extra treats and head pats.

[Grayfox54]

Glad to hear you're OK. 

I just replaced my smoke detectors last week. One of them got to chirping even with a brand new battery in it. Considering they were already here when I bought the house 30 years ago, I just went ahead and replaced them all. 

I do have a couple of fire extinguishers  as well.  Its good to be prepared. 

[DWARREN123]

Hopefully it did not damage any of the internal wiring in the box.

Need to reward the pup, could have been much worse.

[bersaguy]

13 hours ago, DWARREN123 said:

Hopefully it did not damage any of the internal wiring in the box.

Need to reward the pup, could have been much worse.

I have a certified 40+year veteran electrician and his two sons working on replacing the complete panel and all breakers and I told him to replace anything he thinks need replacing. He got here at 6 AM with his helpers And said I should be able to have power very shortly after the inspector marks it as GOOD and the power company replaces the meter.

About 6 months ago I told Tommy I wanted him to pick me up 2 Kerosene heaters and 15  gallons of Kerosene and showed him the ones I wanted at Home Depot where his company gets a discount. He tried to talk me out of it but I have two and been heating my house with them since the fire. Tommy said how did you know you would need the heaters and I said GUT FEELING....LOL! Like  Boy Scout slogan goes. Always be prepared! Believe me the pup, Rosie gets lots of rewards. Here is a picture of the hero!

[TripleGGG]

Glad it wasn't worse Doug and you were able to get someone on the repair quickly.  

[bersaguy]

47 minutes ago, TripleGGG said:

Glad it wasn't worse Doug and you were able to get someone on the repair quickly.  

Thank you my friend and the man and his sons came very highly recommended by people in this area that have been using him for many years. He has been doing these kind of repairs for  40+ years and his sons grew up helping him. He is a certified electrician and so are both his sons and they sub contract themselves out to electrical contractors when their father does not have work. When Dad has work they help him first. I will sure be glad to be fixed up again so I can get rid of that generator noise out on my patio and 350 feet of extention cords running all over the house operating things. Tommy was able to borrow the stuff  from his company and I didn't lose any freezer stuff at all.

[gregintenn]

5 hours ago, bersaguy said:

I have a certified 40+year veteran electrician and his two sons working on replacing the complete panel and all breakers and I told him to replace anything he thinks need replacing. He got here at 6 AM with his helpers And said I should be able to have power very shortly after the inspector marks it as GOOD and the power company replaces the meter.

About 6 months ago I told Tommy I wanted him to pick me up 2 Kerosene heaters and 15  gallons of Kerosene and showed him the ones I wanted at Home Depot where his company gets a discount. He tried to talk me out of it but I have two and been heating my house with them since the fire. Tommy said how did you know you would need the heaters and I said GUT FEELING....LOL! Like  Boy Scout slogan goes. Always be prepared! Believe me the pup, Rosie gets lots of rewards. Here is a picture of the hero!

I’m always skeptical of anyone who doesn’t love dogs. That’s a sure enough hero right there!

[pop pop]

Glad your OK. My house is 40 Y O and about 7 years ago I was washing my car and notice I touched the incoming conduit into my splitter box and seen a blue spark shoot to my hand. I called my Son-in-law who works for the local electric department. He came over and said he bet my lugs were loose on my main boxes, 2-200amp boxes. Took the cover off both and for sure they had to be tightened. Evidently we caught this in time because the wires had not heated to the point of damaging either breaker box. Makes me wonder if I need to retighten them now. I haven't noticed any problems. 

Over time aluminum wire shrinks and that is what my installer put in for the entrance cables from the weather head to the mains in my boxes. Ground was not making good connection and the spark came from that. I had noticed a large drop (dim Lights) when the heat pump kicked on also. You are a lucky man, and your dog is to be praised. 

[DWARREN123]

Aluminum electrical wiring sucks big time!

[RED333]

4 hours ago, DWARREN123 said:

Aluminum electrical wiring sucks big time!

As lone as the job is done correct ALU works very well, The issue is when a jack leg takes short cuts, not using the correct paste is the first step to failure, not getting things tight is the second step.

[bersaguy]

Well, The electrician was dead on with his timing and he completed the job and was gone on Wednesday and had me powered back up Wednesday evening and he called for an inspection on Thursday. The inspector only works in Smith County on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The inspector came out, spent about 10 minutes looking at the work and put a sticker on the breaker box that said inspected and approved. I spent most of yesterday unplugging my house from the generator and looping up extension cords so Tommy could take them back to work warehouse of his employer. 

   As far as my cables bringing power to my box from the weather head outside, I had the electrician check them and they are copper but he did install a new ground cable for the weather head as the one on it was broken near the ground. I guess I am good to go for a while and Rosie got a special supper the last few nights and I have a bag of treats for her. I tested her again last evening and she is still doing as I taught her. I went to the far end of the house away from her and pushed the test button on a smoke detector and in about a minute she was standing beside me and I said good girl and petted her and gave her a treat. 

    I'm also going to look at updating my ABC Extingushers as they are all over 5 years old. They still work but just somethings need to be updated over. time.