Dumbest Emergencies....

**BD2U** · May 17th, 2011, 01:00 AM

I figured I would share one of my dumbest and worst emergency calls I got. About 5 years ago I was working down in Richardson, TX. I got an emergency locate request for "Repair Gas Leak". A simple gas leak repair is no problem. Just mark the gas service, and main in the rear of the property. No problem. Well when I read the ticket, it called for emergency gas leak repair for the Entire Alley. 20 houses on both sides of the alley. 40 Houses in all! Come to find out, when I spoke to the contractor, what I was thinking was true. There was NO gas leak at all! The alley in question was going to be repaved in about 4 days, and the contractor had to lower all of the gas services. So I had to mark the entire alley right then and there, cuz the contractor had forgotten to call in a routine request. When I spoke to my sup about it, I was informed that since he had called in an emergency, it all had to be done right then. I so fuming pissed. I hate idiots like that.

So anyone else have some crazy emergencies??

**Bad Robot** · May 17th, 2011, 07:33 AM

Sorry to here that freind. Sounds like you work for............USIC?

**BD2U** · May 17th, 2011, 08:41 PM

HAHAHA Hellllll no. I work for Heath COnsultants. At the time of this emergency I was working for Utiliquest.Besides if I worked for USIC, then I would have to mark 4 to 5 utilities when I get out of the truck. As it is with Heath, I get out and mark ONLY the gas lines.

**Goldenboy** · May 17th, 2011, 09:18 PM

Today I got the typical 1 hour emergency for CATV replacement for ped to ped. I asked the homeowner how long the temporary line was above ground and he said since last October. How the hell is that an emergency then. We get these all the time here.

A few years back I got an emergency for burying a horse.

**mikeinnella** · May 17th, 2011, 09:53 PM

Got to be City of Dallas.....ALWAYS Emergency sewer clean out all night long!

**SouthPaw** · May 17th, 2011, 11:45 PM

Homeowner called in an emergency locate for "installing fence"

Just because you fail to properly plan ahead, that doesn't make it an emergency

**GroundScope** · May 21st, 2011, 09:10 AM

I had a Job on a Friday to Locate all the services because the Excavator crew is going to be here 7.30Am Monday , yeah we heard that one before.

Anyway It was freezin & I take pics after the locate, you can see the lens is all fogged up

It rained all weekend & I got an emergency call on the Monday morning saying the digger is here & the paint washed away, I say no worries I'll email you the Pics.

I got a call 1/2 hour later saying the dude cut the gas line. On the way back to the job I was thinking I was in the shite, How could I get the locate wrong ?? Anyway I arrived to the smell of gas in the morning & the hit was Dead on the mark . They got the cover sketch but didnt wait for the photos before digging !!! AND you still could see the old paint on the ground.

**hellbilly** · June 1st, 2011, 07:01 PM

I got a emergency last fall for "Burying a Horse" When i got the call from auto dispatch i couldn't believe that is what it said, but once i got the ticket it was. Staking instructions where to locate a pasture. Went and did the locate and left. Never did see a dead horse.

**Dave72** · June 1st, 2011, 08:51 PM

Originally Posted by hellbilly

Never did see a dead horse.

Probably was in the freezer waiting for you to finish up.

(j/k) although Ive heard they do bury horses in snowpiles here to wait for spring thaw..

**Yogi** · June 9th, 2011, 07:35 PM

Mailbox install on a Friday at 4:30pm.

And they do bury horses, i'v had those a few times

**sprayandpray** · June 10th, 2011, 06:59 AM

Originally Posted by hellbilly

I got a emergency last fall for "Burying a Horse" When i got the call from auto dispatch i couldn't believe that is what it said, but once i got the ticket it was. Staking instructions where to locate a pasture. Went and did the locate and left. Never did see a dead horse.

You think you would have at least smelled it.

**HPMadness** · July 11th, 2011, 06:03 PM

Not too long ago I recieved an emergency @ 3:30am for a gas leak. Once I arrived on site (had to get around police and fire barricades), I found that I was at the scene of a huge building fire. This was a five -alarm fire in full swing! The contractor was wanting to have everything marked within a 50' radius of the entire building that was on fire so they could cut and cap two gas services that serviced the building. I told them that they would have to wait a while before anything was marked. I called supervisor to tell him what was going on. He stated to me that since it was an emergency call that I had to wait for however long it took before I could safely mark the utilities. I ended up waiting until 10:30am (almost 7 hrs.) before I could start thinking about marking. I let the contractor know I could not safely mark out the 2 duct runs due to the building about to collapse. Then the contractor says "well we are not going to be anywhere close to that area anyways." I was fuming! I could have slept in for at least 2 more hours, but instead I had all that time there to wait for a fire to be put out so I could mark out 6 phone cables going a total of 25'. They could have waited to call in the ticket until the fire was put out. Oh well, it was all over-time for me!

**Isotopes** · July 11th, 2011, 09:01 PM

It wasnt mine but we recently had 1 for a pool, and one for building a tent. The DM said he was pushing for thr $1000 fine. Hope he sticks it em to good.

**locator00566** · July 11th, 2011, 09:34 PM

Laying Sod has been my dumbiest emergency so far.

**wet_boots101** · July 16th, 2011, 06:51 AM

Got an emergency request one time for a construction crew, who had been working on a commercial shopping center for quite some time, to locate an entire (what turned out to be) 1/2 mile run of electric. Mind you, I had already located this for months and could see where the stuff was buried while sleeping. But - instead of being more specific, they wanted the whole distance.

And a blizzard warning had been issued about a half hour before the request came in, you could see the front approaching on the radar...

So I get out there and find the foreman, ask him where exactly are they digging? No, they're going home... not digging tonight, weather's too bad. So I say to him, "Then I can go home too? There's a blizzard coming~!" The jag-bag gets in my face and says "if it isn't located by 7am the next morning, he'll be on the phone with all the utility companies" and pretty much does the equivalent of giving me the finger by pulling away in his truck right then.

Needless to say they didn't do any digging the next morning... 3 feet of snow on the ground and all that.

I wonder if they ever saw my flags??