Firehouse.com

Nov. 6--Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer, her husband Luis and their four children lost nearly every electrical appliance in their South Oxford Drive home: all the clocks, fans, telephones, a DVD player, microwave and more.

"My computer is gone. That's a big pain," she said. The furnace was fried as well, but works again after hundreds of dollars in repairs, she added.

A broken Duke Energy power line may be to blame for frying her belongings, and for sparking a fire in the abandoned house at 1800 S. Oxford Drive, a stone's throw from Fuentes-Rohwer's house.

An electrical surge swept through her home in the early morning hours of Oct. 23, she said, filling it with a burning rubber smell and causing lights to burn out one by one. The night light in her youngest child's room, however, burned too bright. "It was like the 'Amityville Horror house'," Fuentes-Rohwer said.

A preliminary investigation by Duke revealed that a neutral, or non-energized, wire had broken that morning and "may have accidentally come into contact with an energized power line coming from a nearby transformer," said Duke communications manager Lew Middleton.

Asked if the two lines touching caused a surge to hit Fuentes-Rohwer's house, Middleton said, "We don't know for sure. It may have happened." He said Friday he was not aware Fuentes-Rohwer had filed a claim with Duke.

Fuentes-Rohwer is working with Duke's insurance company, Specialty Risk Services Inc. based in Nashville, Tenn., to get compensation for her fried belongings.

The broken line hitting the live one may also have sent a current to the abandoned house at 1800 Oxford. Fire investigators ruled that fire accidental. It was an electrical fire that started in an outlet that a dishwasher was plugged into, said Bloomington Fire Department chief Roger Kerr.

Fuentes-Rohwer woke up before 5 a.m. that Friday because a fan somewhere in the house -- the family sleeps with fans for the white noise -- was quite loud. She figured a fan had toppled over. But they were all upright, and at least one was emitting a smell of burning rubber. As she went about the house flipping on light switches, the bulbs fizzled out, she said.

"It was spooky. Then I'm freaking out because I don't know anything about electrical stuff."

It appeared random, she said, what fizzled out and what didn't -- her cell phone survived, as did her husband's large TV in the basement. "That would have been the real tragedy, if it had died," she quipped.

She also saw a broken electric wire in her driveway, she said.

Fuentes-Rohwer called the fire department. Firefighters came in and examined the house, and suggested she call her electric company. A technician arrived and found the broken line.

While outside Fuentes-Rohwer's home, fire chief Kerr said, firefighters looked down the street and saw flames coming from the empty house. They called for additional trucks, and the fire was extinguished with no injuries reported.

While Kerr did not want to comment on this situation with Duke, he said "it's not out of the realm of possibly," for malfunctioning power lines to spark a house fire.

Middleton said Duke records show power had been shut off at the vacant house on March 13, 2008.

"Duke Energy does not know the cause of the house fire," he said. He called the broken line incident unusual.

"When a non-energized line comes into contact with an energized line, funny things can happen with how electricity flows," he said. "The unfortunate circumstance is this neutral line broke on is own. We work really, really hard to make sure that our electrical systems are reliable and safe. In spite of our best efforts, sometimes equipment breaks."

Middleton said Duke doesn't keep records of line or transformer malfunctions.

As for Fuentes-Rohwer, she is now in rather tedious talks with Duke's insurance company.

"I assumed that there'd be some kind of justice in this. This is pushing my patience button here."

She's grateful her children, ages 15 to 5, and her home of seven years are OK. And she and her neighbors are curious about what will happen to the empty house.

"I would love for them to raze that house down to the ground," she said. "Now you stand out there today and smell eau de burnt house. It smells very awful."