Fire, Near Explosions and Happy Easter

In my last post, I explained about electrical work that needed to be done but I can only just manage to explain the gravity of the situation now that time has passed and I am feeling more calm.

As I said before, I had a hot socket in the kitchen and noticed that the wall surrounding it was becoming warm. Without too much ado, I explained the situation to an electrical firm and they told me that provided I didn't use that socket, I should be Ok for a few days before they could come and see what was wrong.

Feeling more confident, I opened the door on the prearranged day, to a young electrician who examined the socket and told me that there was obviously a fault and he turned off the electricity supply to look inside the socket and examine the fuse box. When he reconnected the supply, there was a bang and my gas cooker charged with an electrical current, jumped a few inches straight into a gas pipe which fractured and caught fire.

I yelled to the man to switch off the gas and as he was right by the meter he was able to do so fairly promptly.

The fire petered out, fortunately for my husband and rabbits who were very close by and would have been caught in an explosion if the pipe had been left alight. I also would have been involved in the fire or explosion as I was trying to rescue the rabbits and was yelling at Harry to get out.  However, chemo was making him very drowsy and he didn't grasp the seriousness of the situation. Nor did he see the fire, though he heard the cooker jump.

The electrician called a plumber/gas man to attend immediately to replace the fractured pipe and relight the pilot light of the gas fire/boiler when the gas was reconnected and then the electrician put the kitchen sockets onto a new circuit and assured me that it was now safe. He also brought in some apparatus to test the cooker which turned out fine.

He said that I'd have to have all the  electrical sockets, lighting and wiring in the whole house, tested and that he'd be back to find out what had caused the problem but in the meantime it was all safe.

Although my head told me this was true, in the dark hours of the night, I suffered flashbacks and didn't sleep properly for nearly a week imagining what might have been with the cooker electrocuting anyone, the fire getting out of hand or the back of the house blowing out and wondering if it could all happen again. We were fortunate that we weren't hurt in any way  nor was the house damaged and that we must have had a guardian angel looking out for us!

Can anyone beat this experience? In a way, I hope not.

Easter is almost upon us and I'm not sure if my daughter will be here with the grandsons or not. I'm going to be very busy over the next week or two with electrical work and some plumbing, looking after the girls some of the time as well as all the other things that I have to do. If I can't get another post out before Easter then I hope that you all have a very Happy one and for all those living in Britain, then I hope the freezing weather that we are experiencing again, will turn into Spring. It is long over due.