What Is a Make Safe Electrician? What Actually Happens in the First Hour After Storm Damage

What is a make safe electrician? A make safe electrician attends damaged or dangerous electrical installations, usually after storms, and makes the site safe: isolating live hazards, disconnecting damaged sections, securing what can be secured and documenting everything for repairs and insurance. Make safe work is about removing the danger fast. The permanent repair comes afterwards, and when the damage involves your service line, point of attachment or metering, that repair is Level 2 ASP work.

⚡ Quick Answers: make safe electricians

• Is a make safe a repair? No. A make safe removes the immediate danger so the property is no longer a hazard. The permanent repair is a separate, quoted job that follows.
• Who pays for a make safe? Often your insurer. Make safes are a standard part of storm claims, and the attending electrician's report becomes evidence for the rest of the claim.
• Why does it need a Level 2 electrician? Storm damage regularly involves the service line, point of attachment or meter area. Only a Level 2 ASP can legally work on that part of the installation.
• What if a live wire is down? Stay at least 8 metres away and call the network first: Ausgrid on 13 13 88, Endeavour Energy on 131 003, or 000 if life is at risk. See our fallen power line guide.
• How fast can someone attend? Genuine emergencies are prioritised 24/7. During a major storm event, triage applies: live hazards first, no-supply jobs next, everything else after.

1. What "make safe" actually means

Insurers and electricians use the phrase constantly, but it is rarely explained. A make safe visit has one goal: leave the property in a state where nobody can be shocked and nothing can catch fire, even if parts of it stay without power until repairs are done.

That can mean isolating circuits at the switchboard, disconnecting a torn service cable, securing a damaged private power pole, taping off unsafe areas and removing debris from electrical equipment. What it never means is patching things up so the power stays on regardless. If a circuit is not safe, it stays off.

2. The first hour, step by step

The first job on arrival is a hazard assessment from a distance. Is anything live on the ground, arcing or smoking? If a network conductor is involved, the distributor is called before anything is touched, because that side of the installation belongs to them.

Next comes isolation. Power is switched off to the affected circuits, or to the whole installation if the main switch, meter area or consumer mains are damaged. Then the physical work: disconnecting damaged cable, securing loose equipment, weatherproofing exposed connections where possible.

Finally, testing and documentation. The electrician tests what remains energised so the safe parts of the home keep running, then photographs and writes up the damage. That report matters more than most owners realise, because it establishes cause and scope for the insurance claim.

3. Why storm make safes are Level 2 work

An ordinary licensed electrician can isolate circuits and repair wiring inside your home. But the assets storms hit hardest sit on the supply side: the overhead service line, the point of attachment on your fascia or pole, the consumer mains and the metering. Work on that equipment requires a Level 2 Accredited Service Provider authorised by the networks.

A Level 2 make safe crew can disconnect your service at the street, repair or re-run the overhead service line, and reconnect you without waiting for a second contractor. We covered the accreditation side in detail in why make safe services require a Level 2 electrician, so this post stays on what the visit itself looks like.

4. Make safe vs permanent repair

A make safe buys safety, not restoration. If your point of attachment was ripped off in the wind, the make safe disconnects and secures it; the permanent repair re-fixes the bracket, replaces damaged cable and brings the connection back to standard, which may involve a planned disconnect and reconnect with the network.

Insurers usually handle these as two stages too: an emergency make safe authorised immediately, then a quoted repair approved once the assessor has the report. If the damage revealed older problems, like corroded consumer mains or an overloaded board, a defect rectification or switchboard upgrade can be rolled into the same repair scope.

5. What you can do before the electrician arrives

Keep people and pets away from anything damaged, especially fallen or sagging wires, and never assume a downed line is dead. If the switchboard is dry and safe to reach, turning off the main switch is sensible. If water has entered the board, leave it entirely alone; our guide to water in the switchboard explains why re-energising a wet board is dangerous.

Photograph the damage from a safe distance, note when it happened, and work out who your distributor is so the right network gets the call. You can check your network area in seconds with our postcode checker, and our storm damage responsibility guide maps who owns which part of the repair.

6. When outages drag on

A bad storm can leave repairs queued for days, on the network side as much as yours. Households that cannot afford to lose power, whether for medical equipment or a full freezer, increasingly pair storm resilience work with backup power. An automatic transfer switch and standby generator restore supply in under 75 seconds without anyone touching a lead.

How High Demand Electrical helps

We run a 24/7 emergency make safe service across Sydney with Level 2 ASP crews, which means the same team that makes your property safe can repair the service line, metering and consumer mains, then reconnect you. Every make safe includes a written report with photos for your insurer, and we handle storm damage repairs end to end, from first call through to final reconnection and paperwork.

Make Safe Electrician FAQs (Sydney)

Do I call my insurer or an electrician first?

If something is actively dangerous, safety comes first: 000 for fire or life risk, the network for fallen lines, then a make safe electrician. Call your insurer once the immediate danger is being handled; most policies expect emergency make safes and reimburse them.

Will the make safe electrician restore my power?

Where it is safe to do so, yes, at least partially. Undamaged circuits are tested and left on. Anything damaged stays isolated until it is repaired, and if the service line or meter is involved, a Level 2 repair and network reconnection come next. See what same day reconnection realistically looks like.

How much does a make safe cost?

It depends on what is damaged and when the crew attends, and storm insurance claims commonly cover it. Scope and pricing are confirmed on site before work proceeds.

What details should I have ready when I call?

What happened and when, what is damaged, whether you have power, and whether wires are down. Saving the key emergency numbers before storm season makes that first call much quicker.

Storm damage at your place?

Book an emergency make safe or call 0402 559 777, 24/7. Every job starts with a site assessment so the scope and pricing are confirmed before work begins.