DETROIT – Live wires are nothing to take lightly, and a Detroit woman said one above her home was keeping her up at night.
She called Local 4 for help, and now her worries are a thing of the past.
It's the time of year when many people do yard work, such as cutting down branches. Detroit resident Wanda Avery said a work crew came to her home Tuesday and put up ladders to fix gutters. When the workers started cutting branches away from the side of the garage, they found the wires.
"His eyes were big, and he was looking, like, 'You're in trouble if the wind comes,'" Avery said.
He discovered an old, loose, frayed and exposed electrical wire hidden in the trees, providing a main service for Avery's neighbor's house.
"We can't finish all of this because you need to get your neighbor to call DTE," Avery said. "I asked why. (They said) because that's a live line."
At that, the branches stayed on the ground, and the work crew didn't.
"He said that's not good because if a good wind comes, it's going to snap that part and it's going to land on your garage and it's for sure going to set your garage on fire," Avery said. "I have my car in that garage."
Avery immediately started worrying and called DTE. They put her on a work list, but it wasn't moving fast enough for her. She refused to go in her house and lost sleep thinking about the fire danger.
She called Local 4, and we called DTE. Within an hour, a repair crew replaced the old wire.
"I'm ecstatic," Avery said. "I thank you a lot."
The new wire is in place, but crews want to cinch it up tight. A tree-trimming crew is expected to visit the home Thursday and finish the job.
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