Methuen Man Shares His Electricity With Neighbors In Power Outage
METHUEN (CBS) - One man has come up with a creative, and possibly dangerous, way to help out his neighbors who are suffering in the power outage.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens reports
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George Vinciguerra has electricity at his home on Currier Avenue in Methuen, but two of his neighbors do not.
So, he's allowed them to run extension cords to his home until their power is restored.
Vinciguerra wasn't available for comment Thursday, but one of his neighbors was.
Paul Hickingbotham said he is extremely grateful.
"They're awesome, awesome people and they will help wherever they can," he told WBZ NewsRadio 1030.
"So, I'm running extension cords down to my home and also they're helping out my neighbor across the street, doing the same, just trying to get some of the basics."
For Hickingbotham, the basics are a little heat and light occasionally, and once in a while, a working refrigerator, oven or television.
However, Methuen's fire department says sharing power this way is dangerous and it could lead to an electrical fire.
But, residents are trying to balance safety with necessity.
WBZ-TV's Sera Congi reports
"We try to make sure that it's not overloaded in any way, we obviously have circuit breakers on there. I'm not looking to run the whole house, I'm looking to run necessities," Hickingbotham told WBZ-TV.
"We're getting through a crisis here, there's no question."
