What if you do it on purpose?

Wait, were these wires in the ground, or overhead?

Fail either way...

I'll tell you what.

Neither does my local public works department. They were digging out a ditch behind my building and severed the cable bundle that provides the phone and internet to my office. It pretty much incapaticated the office for about 24 hrs but on the upside I got to go home early.

Rufus Lee King: Well, could have been worse. Could have ripped up a gas line.

The guy down the street did exactly that while performing "exploratory digging" in the front yard of his newly purchased house. It turns out that he had diagnosed his slow bathroom and kitchen sinks as a clog in the sewer line. So, he rented a tiny excavator (he has a love-hate relationship with the local rental center) and went to work digging. When the first fire engine showed up, he was already in the midst of attempting to repair the break in the gas line himself using a rubber pipe sleeve and hose clamps. At least he had smothered the nut driver he planned to use to tighten the clamps in axle grease "to prevent sparks", LOL. As a volunteer firefighter who has, as a result of a gas leak, responded to a crater formerly known as a house, I didn't find his bootstrappy, can-do attitude in the least bit refreshing. It turned out that the drain problem was a clogged vent on the roof.

This guy is the worst sort of DIY person. He just starts projects without doing research and he has no practical sense. His latest escapade was removing an 80ft oak tree in his yard using an axe, a 24" chain saw and a bunch of Troybilt chippers (he killed two, not including the one he rented and also killed). Seriously, he was hoisting himself into the tree on a harness made of nylon float rope and dog leash. He ended up smashing a huge branch into the roof of his house, puncturing it, tearing down the soffit and front gutter. All the flower beds his wife had tended to have been pulverized. He has gotten it to the point where he now has a 40ft tall branch-free stump. For a couple of days, his chainsaw was left out, jambed hopelessly in the trunk about ten feet up. But he got most of the saw down; he tied the handle to a length of cable and pulled it with his truck.

He struck up a conversation with me last week and asked me, if he could burn the stump down by soaking it in gasoline or using acid to burn away the bottom of the trunk. I'm glad there's two houses between he and I. I am also glad to report that he has not yet had children and Darwin, bless his soul, he shall never.

Rufus Lee King: Well, could have been worse. Could have ripped up a gas line.

Seriously. If he found the electrical he wasn't far off. Dunno why amateur DIY'ers think they can go digging around the house in suburbia without the locations of all the buried crap.

smadge1: Wait, were these wires in the ground, or overhead?

Fail either way...

"Live wires fell on the house, which sparked the fire"

That sounds like overhead, or she lived in a hobbit hole.

runescorpio: Rufus Lee King: Well, could have been worse. Could have ripped up a gas line.

Seriously. If he found the electrical he wasn't far off. Dunno why amateur DIY'ers think they can go digging around the house in suburbia without the locations of all the buried crap.

I did not realize that gas lines are run overhead in your area.

 

/Many levels...

Rufus Lee King: Well, could have been worse. Could have ripped up a gas fiber optic line.

FTFY

Even if everyone involved was killed, it's still cheaper (in the long run) than even a smaller fiber optic line.

/Many years of experience ripping every sort of wire/line/pipe/etc (both overhead and underground) to shreds.

Rufus Lee King: MBrady: I did not realize that gas lines are run overhead in your area.

Might have misread a bit. Shut up.

Not my fault that someone "mis-read." Might try shutting up yourself. This is not 6th grade.

this is why you always call and get underground gas, phone and electrical lines marked out.

So did they find the poor lost sysadmin or not?

Aulus: Three years ago, a neighbor tried running a self propelled bucket lift:

[people.delphiforums.com image 768x576]

between two houses across the alley from me. He failed to take into account the heavy rails and the resulting softening of the soil and the pressure caved in the foundation/basement wall of one house. It took a crane and a tow truck to get the bucket lift out, leaving this:

[people.delphiforums.com image 768x576]

No but majority of the time on newer homes electrical is buried. Says he was digging. We go with what were given.