Emergency Electrician in Buxton, Maine

When a storm drops a tree across a service drop in Buxton, the damage usually shows at the house: a mast bent or torn from the wall, a meter socket pulled loose, or wires sagging across a yard. Keep yourself and everyone else clear of a downed wire and phone 911 and Central Maine Power. The utility answers for the drop and the meter; from the weatherhead inward, including the mast, meter socket and entrance cable, the equipment belongs to the household, and it must be fixed by a licensed electrician before the line is re-energized. Since Buxton permits electrical work locally, that repair goes through the town as well.

Day or night, Goodnow Electric will come out, make the torn service safe, put up a new mast and socket, and line up the reconnect with CMP. Winter adds a delayed version of the same damage: an iced-up drop, or a slab of snow sliding from a steep roof, can bend a mast days after the wind has died. In a drawn-out outage, a portable generator plugged in with no interlock or transfer switch can energize the street wires that line crews are handling, so keep it outside and connected properly or not at all. If the mast is damaged but the house still has power, keep clear of the meter area and call anyway, because a loose service can arc or fail completely in the next wind.

In a town heated mostly by oil, some emergency calls start in the basement. If the boiler will not fire, check the red emergency switch for the burner, often at the top of the cellar stairs, which is easy to mistake for a light switch; if it is on and there is still no heat, the problem may be electrical. Other warning signs call for shutting off power where you safely can: a fuse box that smells scorched, an outlet that sparks or runs hot, a house that is dark when the rest of the road has lights, or a main that trips again as soon as it is switched back. Old wiring under heavy winter load is the usual cause.