Mystery help needed, firemen, electrical

There are different types of meters as well.. ONE meter is a Shunt device, this means that behind the meter, in the box is a shunt, only a small fraction of trhe current flows through the meter.. Pull the meter and loads won't even notice.

Also, there may be alternative paths for current to bypass a meter.. I would rather not go into detail but I have seen it happen.

In the first example, the open neutral was on the OTHER duplex apartment, not the one with the fire. Neutral and ground are bonded together in the main panel, and the ground also connects to a cold water pipe in the house.

Let's call the duplex with the fire #1 and the other one #2. So when they pulled the meter on #1, #2 still had power. BUT, #2 had an open neutral, so power was flowing through the ground path from that panel since it couldn't return to the power co through the neutral. Because the grounds all come together at the water pipes, power was actually backfeeding into #1 via it's ground, which in turn energized anything that was grounded.

I have read some reports on the plumbing forum of plumbers getting shocked when cutting a copper pipe for this reason. The house next door has an open neutral, or there is one on the pole down the block (second scenario on the video), so there is power flowing to ground through the pipes. When the plumber cuts the pipe, he opens the circuit to ground and gets a shock as the power wants to flow through him now. It's not full house voltage because there are numerous paths to ground, no just that single pipe.

So even if the electric in your house is 100% OK, you can still get a shock or have these problems if there is an open ground at your neighbor's or on your block.

BroncosFan wrote:
Mystery to me anyway. Would you happen to know how electricity could still be flowing in these examples even though the electric meter is pulled? I don't understand how if the meter is out and the neutral wire is cut, where the electricity is coming from?

You can just check out the first example it's 8 minutes long. Even the other examples have the meter pulled but still electrified inside. Thanks in advance.
http://youtu.be/XZ_zzHpGBGw

A meter is not required. Most RV posts don't have them even when the post appears to have a space where one could be installed. Unfortunately, electricity will still flow when no ground is connected. Remember the 2 slot plugs? There was no ground.
I am on a limited bandwidth cellular connection so I could not watch the video.