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We responded to a "no power" call on the out skirts of a local town that the
company I work for serves. Someone had set fire to a pile of trash that was
under a service pole with a secondary and two services pulling off of it,
and burnt down one of the services. The fire was out when we got there at
about 8:00 that evening. It was dark and just the smoldering embers of some
old tree limbs and some house hold trash were left. The pole was behind a
trailer and a house so we couldn't get a bucket truck to it so my partner
had to climb it. It was covered with vines and stickers, and the crimpettes
were not covered, so we decided to drop the pot out that fed the secondary
to make it a little safer climb. We assess the situation from there and
began with our rat killing, my partner began to climb the pole and fight the
vines, stickers and the smoke. I was pretty happy that It wasn't me on the
pole. It was really a mess. I made my splices on the new service and began
pulling it to the base of the pole and began pealing back the hot legs to
get a grip on it. I was in about waist deep brush and briars, it was dark
and smoky and I was backing into the brush. It was about that time that
the ground that I was standing on gave way underneath me and I plunged into
an open septic tank. I sunk almost to my waist before I had realized what
was happening and I was falling backwards fast. I snatched on the service
that I had in my hands and used it for a life line to pull myself out.
Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. I stomped around in the head
lights of the trucks and cussed up a blue header, to the gut wrenching
amusement of my partner, who nearly laughed hisself off of the pole. The
bad part of it was, all of the water at that residence was on a well, which
we had cut off whenever we had dropped out the pot. I had to finish the job
covered with the mess from the septic tank. Whenever we did get done I was
probably in the foulest mood that I've ever been in, on the job. After some
ribbing from my partner and few good laughs and jokes, I stripped down to my
skivvies and made the ride home. Now, try to explain to your wife what
happened whenever you get in from a late night trouble call and your in your
birthday suite. It takes some quick jaw work to get the story out before
the dishes start to fly. Thought you guys might get a kick out of that one.