Home»Fire Incidents»2009 Incidents»ACW Burrillville, RI 505 Douglas Pike (RTE-7) August 17, 2009

Burrillville, RI- All town departments were dispatched to the area of 505 Douglas Pike for a motor vehicle accident involving an utility pole with wires down possible landing on an occupied dwelling. Station 3's chief arrived first due and found a primary wire from the pole to dwelling down on the roadway and pulled off of the dwelling. The OIC had smoke showing from the dwelling on the side 1-2 corner where the electrical meter was mounted to the dwelling. The chief requested National Grid or nearby Pascoag Electric with a push due to the wires still being live. Firefighters stretched dry line and also dumped a dry chemical extinguisher on the side wall the the meter was on. The dwelling service wires were housed in PVC conduit that ran up and over the side 2 gable end. The conduit began to catch fire from the arcing wires. Dry chemical agent was also dumped on this fire to keep it from extending to the dwelling. Pascoag Electric was closer to the scene and responded in to cut the power at the pole to the downed wire. Once the power was deemed terminated, the firefighters were able to gain entry into the dwelling to check for extension with thermal cameras. They mopped up the PVC conduit fire with an 1.75" hand line. The witnesses on scene reported to the chief that a tractor trailer box struck the low hanging wire as it drove by. The primary wire pulled the conduit off of the dwelling and also ripped the wires out of the meter box.