Tongue Tyed: Power Trip

Apr 12, 2005

Power Trip

Last Friday, we had a major mishap at work. I was in our R&D room working on a new paint finish when the power went out. Now we throw breakers with some regularity, so at first I wasn't concerned. Then I realized, this room was never one of the rooms affected by the breakers that usually get thrown. This was a real problem. I got my father/boss and we went check things out. As we walk toward the back of the warehouse, our employees are streaming outside and tell me in Spanish that Juan, the warehouse manager, had told them to go outside, but no one quite knew why. I rushed toward the oncoming crowd, ignoring my employees pleas to follow them and found a large cloud of smoke just outside of the building. Employees were coming through the smoke covering their mouths. This was not good.

It turned out the main electrical line to the building had exploded at the first junction box going into the building. This meant A LOT of electricity had been flowing through that point. Enough to easily kill someone. Luckily, it was on the outside of our concrete walled building and had just left a large explosion stain on the wall, and no power. Through quick thinking, two employees had gotten fire extinguisher and put the fire out, thank goodness. But what a mess.

All this happened around 1:30. We close at three on Fridays, so we wound up sending our employees home early, and waited for the electrical company, the fire department, the property management group, and an electrician.

After everyone had made their assessment, and everything was safe, the electricians started working and continued to do so until Sunday. We had generator power on Monday until almost two. But that was only in the warehouse. We were still without power in the office. I had no idea how much I need electricity to do my job!

The good news in all of this though, is that we did not have to pay for any of it. Our lease for the building states that the property company is responsible for the exterior of the building. We are responsible for the interior...They unhappily had to pay for the thousands of dollars in repairs!

We are now back up and running...I love electricity!

posted by Ty @ 4/12/2005

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