House electrical problem - demonic possession suspected

[Derek French]

OK, this is just fricken bizarre. I have just lost power to my stove, fridge, one outlet in the living room, one in the basement, and the kids rooms upstairs. It happened partly through dinner when the wife commented the the lights were out in the fridge.

I moved the fridge to an outlet just around the corner and it came on, and I even tried "rebooting" the electrical panel, buy turning each breaker off then on, in case one of them blew, but didn't move their position. No dice.

Further to the bizarre, with the stove being off, and the lights on it don't work, and the timer is dark, I can still turn on the elements and the indicator light comes on. The burners do get warm, but they do not get hot.

So, I think its demonic possession. Anybody have a better idea?

[Fugitive]

A short bleeding current to ground (perhaps even the literal ground in this case)? A ground fault interrupter breaker should catch that, but your breakers might not be if it's an older house.

[Derek French]

/wave at the Calgarian

Totally, an old (but in very good shape) house. Built in the 60's.

For more in the bizarre, the kids rooms have come back on. I think your diagnosis is in the right area. I am going to check on more things. Thanks.

[markv]

Could be a condensation/water problem causing it to short out there.

[Brendan]

Has a rat has chewed through a cable and shorted out a circuit somewhere?

[Houngan]

Also, since you mentioned the stove, I would really recommend getting an electrician out there soon. It should be running from a 220v outlet, which means you have multiple failures at the box.

H.

[Derek French]

Has a rat has chewed through a cable and shorted out a circuit somewhere?
Alberta is rat free. =)

Update: I flipped off the 3 240 volt breakers last night and slowly, the other circuits came back. So the house is running again. We will be calling an electrician in to examine what the hell is going on.

Thank you all for all the suggestions, it really helped me think through it all.