I was on my daily walkabout while the cleaners make up my room yesterday and as I walked up Third road Pattaya Tai end by soi 33 towards Soi Lengkee just 50 feet in front of me there was a loud explosion that made me jump.

 

Sparks and flames belched from a major power cable that had fractured from the overhead lines just in front of me and the two ends of the cable semed to writh around like a fire hose let loose.

 

Fortunately for everyone the two ends of this cable, which burst into flames, fell on the tin awning of a shop below and no one was hurt but it could have been so much different and I think if those cable ends had connected with anyone below it would have been instant curtains.

 

Some Thai ladies in the rooms above the shop looked out of the window and saw the flames. they must have panicked because they went back inside and emerged with what looked like bedding and made as if to throw onto the burning cables to douse the flames.

 

By then a crowd had gathered to see what was happening and screamed at them not to do that. I managed to get a little bit of video but missed the most dramatic part.

 

I've seen some of the small bundles of cables catch fire before but never been so close to a powerful explosion of a major cable.

 

 

I saw a step-down transformer explode in Phuket many years ago - sounded like WW3 had started!

4 minutes ago, simon43 said:

 sounded like WW3 had started!

That could come in handy.

And when the fire brigade turned up they tried dousing the flames with water LOL....never heard of foam for putting out electrical fires I,m guessing?

I live occasionally transformers blow it does sound like a tremendous bomb going off usually within 3 to 6 hours the electric people come out and fix it this happens regularly where I live TIT

Alarming but all perfectly normal here ????

26 minutes ago, TheFishman1 said:

I live occasionally transformers blow it does sound like a tremendous bomb going off usually within 3 to 6 hours the electric people come out and fix it this happens regularly where I live TIT

Yes, this is nothing special here. I will never forget when all the Internet connections to our condo complex got destroyed. Took them a couple of days to fix it.

11 hours ago, petermik said:

And when the fire brigade turned up they tried dousing the flames with water LOL....never heard of foam for putting out electrical fires I,m guessing?

That wasn't the first set of wires the fire brigade has dealt with, I'm sure they knew what they were doing. 

Amazes me how quickly the damaged wires are sorted out.

The problem is where the transformers are sited. Last year close to me one exploded and it was located next to a balcony of a block of apartments their was a lot of flame and black smoke. Luckily no one injured.

1 hour ago, Mickeymaus said:

Yes, this is nothing special here. I will never forget when all the Internet connections to our condo complex got destroyed. Took them a couple of days to fix it.

Couple of days Mick!! Amazed you made it thru.

2 minutes ago, Olmate said:

Couple of days Mick!! Amazed you made it thru.

My 3BB VDSL didn't work anymore ????????????. This is why I have now an additional SIM router... ???????????? No, just kidding. It is not the reason. But at the moment I have both.

Electricity ... Danger Will Robinson !!!!

I remember my dad (an electrical engineer) telling me a story when I was in high school to make sure I never went into the electric trades.

A line repairman in a crew of fellas was attending a step-down or transformer fault. He forgot to take his metal watch off.

Walked past the chain-wire barrier fence surrounding the installation one way and all was well, walked back again watch facing the transformer and the current reached out grabbed him and strained him through the chain-wire fence nothing left of him but the soles of his boots!!!

Where is the video ? Please share. Thanks.

15 hours ago, petermik said:

And when the fire brigade turned up they tried dousing the flames with water LOL....never heard of foam for putting out electrical fires I,m guessing?

Not smart using Foam either - that it also mainly water !   Best use Dry Powder or CO2 on electrical fires 

39 minutes ago, extercy said:

Where is the video ? Please share. Thanks.

It's on my phone, I sort of missed the best bit because I thought I had pressed the record button but I hadn't .sometimes it is difficult to see the screen in daylight and in a hurry. But it's still worth seeing. Not sure if I can upload it from  my phone to this platform. Can't promise anything but I'll have a look later, got a busy day today.

2 hours ago, Jen65 said:

Not smart using Foam either - that it also mainly water !   Best use Dry Powder or CO2 on electrical fires 

Stay away from it until the power company cuts off the supply. More than likely the fire will put itself out, if not then water will do the job safely.

21 hours ago, Padthaigoong said:

Sparks and flames belched from a major power cable that had fractured from the overhead lines just in front of me and the two ends of the cable semed to writh around like a fire hose let loose.

Picture, or it didn't happen ⚠️

Same same, but different

 

9 hours ago, TheFishman1 said:

I live occasionally........

I think you missed the word WHERE at the beginning.   555

2 hours ago, CH1961 said:

Picture, or it didn't happen ⚠️

 

4 hours ago, Joe Farang said:

Stay away from it until the power company cuts off the supply. More than likely the fire will put itself out, if not then water will do the job safely.

Oh so if I have an electrical fire on my yacht you say I'm supposed to wait until the fire puts itself out  ( and burns my yacht to waterline in the process ) or you say use water( and destroy /short everything else in the process ) ???

I don't think so !!    

7 hours ago, Jen65 said:

Oh so if I have an electrical fire on my yacht you say I'm supposed to wait until the fire puts itself out  ( and burns my yacht to waterline in the process ) or you say use water( and destroy /short everything else in the process ) ???

I don't think so !!    

Yes, that is what you should do. Just be careful when getting out of your yacht that you don't nettle yourself.

Jomtien, 2016, two side by side transformers exploded.  Burnt a lot of black spaghetti.  The electric spaghetti chefs had my stove going in about 6 hours.

Just now, Joebuzzz said:

Jomtien, 2016, two side by side transformers exploded.  Burnt a lot of black spaghetti.  The electric spaghetti chefs had my stove going in about 6 hours.

If you mean at the junction of Second road and the road going to the beach by the " We know what you want " pub

 

I've got footage of that too...lol

 

I was staying at VT2a at the time and filmed it from my balcony

Not sure it was 2016 though so may have been a seperate incident

 

Don't ask to see the footage because it's on my pc back home in UK.