The Davis Square Community

I know this is an odd situation to hear about--but I have a feeling we aren't unique in the city.

We have an old house, and over the years it has been rental property on-and-off. There have been phone lines, new phone lines, cable, different cable, another cable company, electrical lines, satellite dishes, OTA antenna... And on and on. Certainly some of the installed lines were done by companies that no longer exist.

Periodically these are now falling off the house. One time we called 911 during a storm because we didn't know which it was. One time someone else must have called because a fire truck showed up here and I was baffled, but they said someone called in a down line. I still don't know what it was, but the truck left.

We wanted to "unwire" the house safely, but we can't figure out how. I called the city and they told me it would be an electrician we have to hire. Fine--but when we tried that, the electrician was hesitant to touch the stuff, and a lot of it wasn't electrical and would need addressing from the overhead street lines. He said we should call up the cable companies and demand they come and remove stuff. But which ones?

Today we've had another line start to drift down into a tree. I am not sure what to do. Has anyone unwired old wiring from their house successfully? It's crazy to have the fire department keep coming out for this nonsense.