Naperville Home Burned Down
It was a few years ago, but my brother had an old house in Naperville
and the upstairs pipe (I think it was an older heat register in a
bathroom that used water to heat the house) was on an outside wall
facing the cold west.  Anyhow, he used an electric blanket to defrost
it and burned the house down.  Electricity and water (unfrozen) from
pipes do not mix.  M.S. Naperville

Downers Grove Condo Building Burned Down
About 6 years ago a friend who is a builder had an employee (a carpenter)
who was doing some work for a lady in a condo.  The work he was
performing was not authorized or managed by the builder -this was a
remodel side job for the carpenter. The carpenter accidentally shot a
nail through a pipe in the wall.  Not being a plumber he went to
Big Box store to get a kit to fix the hole in the pipe when he met a
handy man in the plumbing department who said he had the right tools
and could fix the hole for him. So the handyman & the carpenter went
back to the condo to fix the hole.  Unfortunately the handyman was not
as handy as he had thought because he started the insulation in the
wall on fire while soldering the pipe.  The whole condo building burned
to the ground.  I never did find out what happened to the carpenter
or the handyman, but I wonder what happened because neither one of
the workers carried a contractors license or insurance.

Metal Snake on Loose in Back Yard
This is a story about a rooter company coming out to unclog our toilet.
It was a young guy in an unmarked van that showed up. He went right
to work on the problem (we heard the usual scraping sound from the
auger in the pipes) and he was in the bathroom for about 1/2 an hour
when he came out and said he fixed the problem. After we paid the
money and he left we brought the kids from playing in the back yard.
They said that there was a big metal snake coming out of the house
and they tried to catch it! We figured out that the inexperienced
rooter guy rodded the toilet but got off track and shot the cable
out through the toilet vent rather than down the drain pipe. There
was proof on the siding at the back of the house as to what happened.
The toilet was also scratched up inside the bowl. We called the company
back and the call taker took the information but no one ever got back
to us even though we called at least 6 times trying to speak to a
manager.  We are just thankful the kids never caught the snake! Now
we call a licensed plumbing company not a rooter company because we
understand the difference between the two, which is a 4 year plumbing
education.

Newly Wed Flooding Disaster
A man called and said that he had a plumbing emergency – there was
water coming from everywhere and could we get there right away. The
dispatcher said yes and educated the customer on shutting the main
water valve and let him know the plumber would arrive shortly. The
plumber was actually surprised at the amount of damage done when he
got there and looked around. There were leaks and water damage all
around in almost every room. When the plumber started asking the man
and his young wife what had happened the man explained that they just
arrived home after 2 weeks away – they had been on their honeymoon.
When they returned everything was fine and they turned on the lights &
heat and started unpacking.  After an hour or so there was popping
sounds and water started shooting right through the drywall. Being new
to home ownership and not knowing any better they had turned off the
heat while they were gone (and it was winter time).  They had many
frozen and burst pipes which did not start leaking until the heat
thawed the building about an hour or two after they turned it on.
They had a very expensive mess on their hands.