ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Photos for General Discussion Lift Station Kaboom

This is by far the worst fire/kaboom I've seen in person and had to repair.

The meter still hanging on the rack is a 480v service for a parking lot lighting at a Lowes. We are not contracted to repair this.

The meter pictured on the ground was to the right of the Lowes meter and is a 120/208v three phase service for a county lift station. It fed a 100a three phase disconnect located 10' to the left of the rack.

Poco claims the cause was a lightning strike. The #4 solid ground wire was intact and connected to a 5/8" ground rod.

Both services are fed from different transformers with both being 200' away or so.

The picture of the disconnect panel covers shows them bowed out from the blast and you can see the disconnect also bowed out, no fire damage though.

The picture of the 4 #1's show they are all fused together, this was down in a RMC 90 which they used to go from PVC to RMC.

The picture of the closed PoCo hand hole shows where the PVC STOPPED, The wire was not protected from the end of the conduit shown to inside the hand hole.

I'd like opinions of whether you guys think lightning did this, I'm thinking it was a phase to phase short