End of times, ED (electrical fire - Peckham Rye)

[treehugger]

OH was walking the dog in Peckham Rye at 10 this morning when he was amazed to notice smoke coming out of the ground, to the left of the path heading east from Barry Road. He thought at first it was a small bonfire and then realised after days of rain, that this could not possibly be the cause. He scratched away at the earth and as he dug a bit deeper, more smoke came pouring out. Unnerved, he went on his way round the park. On his return, the emergency services had been called and about six firemen (with buckets of water) and a policemen had cordoned off the area and were standing round scratching their heads as smoke continued to gush out of the ground.

When he came home and showed me his video we were rather stunned and speculated that this truly must be the end of days as foretold in that wonderful film 2012, whose plot centred on the thinning of the earth's crust. How appropriate that this should all start in ED, we thought, and only a few days later than the Mayans forecast (fair margin of error)...

Later, at 4pm the area was surrounded by workmen from various electricity companies who had dug up the area and explained that it had been caused by electric cables shorting out underground, and they saw this kind of incident around three times a day. Rather disappointing given our speculation - BUT they still hadn't got to the root of the issue. I've not given up on my original hypothesis that all ED folk will be lifted up to heaven in a rapture tonight!

[Sue]

That's really quite worrying.

Surely electricity cables can only short if they are touching? So they can't have been laid properly in the first place?

And they see this sort of incident "around three times a day" ?!?!?!?

And - what happens if you pour water onto live electric cables?

Ooer ......

[the-e-dealer]

No Electricity merely needs something to travel through and the higher the voltage the easier it is. Water, Air, Earth will allow travel in the right conditions. I suspect it was the wet weather. Though Salty Water is better than rain.

And of-course the team assigned to this type of problem encounter it a lot. I wonder how big their patch is.

[treehugger]

Cables are apparently 80 years old.

[JohnL]

I'm sure I've read of people being hurt by this.

But obviously not often if it happens three times a day :o

[grabot]

JohnL Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I'm sure I've read of people being hurt by this.

>

> But obviously not often if it happens three times

> a day :o

Yes, do you remember this,

http://metro.co.uk/2011/02/13/newbury-racecourse-dig-up-buried-electricity-cable-after-two-horses-die-638666/

Not people I know, but tragic. I remember listening to the events live on Radio 5. Initially inexplicable.