I thought I heard firecrackers BUT I was so wrong when............

Salam,

12.00 p.m.(last night) - My daughters and I were sleeping soundlessly (well, almost.. when Fathini and Hafizah snored for a while) when suddenly the air conditioner turned off on its own. At first I thought it was the timer but then I heard like small explosions of firecrackers from one of the neighbour's houses. So, I woke up and got up from the bed to investigate further. What I saw was some small explosions from one of the electrical pole outside of our neighbour's house. Basically it was an electrical short circuit problem that caused explosions and then flames in front of the house (about 4 houses away from our house). My parents-in-law went to the scene to check out and so were the other people from the other houses. Luckily, two police patrol cars and also a fire engine truck arrived shortly to the scene and about 1 hour later, the electricity supply was back to normal. I couldn't really sleep last night because I was thinking about the worst case scenario. My PIL were quite calm and when they came back from the scene, they said, "Everything is under control". 

 Photo source: GOOGLE

HAVE ANY OF YOU EXPERIENCED THIS? WHAT HAPPENED? HOW DID IT START? WHAT DID YOU DO?

I found this information from this SITE that might be useful if any of us experience the electrical short circuit.

Here's how to check where the problem lies:

• Turn off all light fixtures on the circuit.
• Unplug everything from the outlets.
• Go the the electrical service panel and reset the breaker.
• If it trips again immediately,the short lies in the house wiring (outlets or switches).
• If the breaker does not trip, proceed back to the area and turn on each light fixture not plugged into the wall (i.e., fixed lighting).
• If the breaker still has not tripped, the short circuit lies in something you are plugging into the outlet.
• Systematically plug each item into the outlet until you find the faulty appliance or lamp and then have it repaired.