The investigator was a personal friend who we stumbled upon
as he was returning from the exploded house. He immediately
explained what had happened - the broken neutral wire inside
transformer and no building earth ground. It was one of
those, "Of course. I never realized that could happen."
moments. As it would when one is familiar with 'how and why'
buildings and utilities are earthed.

Another event created by a missing earth ground was
continuous ringing of telephones in some adjacent homes. The
offending home was not properly earthed. That house used
other utility wires as a neutral wire. The emergency response
guy borrowed infrared goggles from the fire department to
follow a cable TV wire. Wire was so hot that he could follow
that wire behind walls with infrared goggles.

Basic knowledge of how utilities connect make it obvious
that electricity could use gas lines (or other conductive
materials) as a neutral return - given a failure in the right
spot AND no building earth ground. Feel all you want. But
earth ground is essential for human safety as well as for
other reasons. Facts remain electrical. Feeling has no place
here. Either one can say specifically why that gas line was
not used as a neutral return - or one does not have sufficient
knowledge to respond. Feelings are not sufficient. A
doubting response must be able to say why - using fundamental
electrical principles. Anything less would be junk science
reasoning.

Homeowners have enough in these two discussions to
appreciate why earth ground is essential to human safety AND
why (and how) that earth ground should be enhanced to provide
transistor safety.

FDR wrote:
"w_tom" wrote in message
...
A household earth ground (another earth ground) is essential
also for human safety. The neutral wire failed inside a
transformer. Building's earth ground had been compromised.
But since the lights still worked, the homeowner did nothing.
To transport electricity back to the defective transformer,
the house use a natural gas line. Fortunately no one was home
when gas line gaskets finally failed at the meter; the house
exploded.

If that doesn't souind like an urban myth....