Errr, short-circuiting to ground will cause a RCD to trip immediately - that's what they're there for. You will generally have one RCD on the entire fuse board, and then individual circuit breakers for each branch.
If that's really how they do that - one RCD for a bunch of circuits then I have to retract my words, a ground fault would cause a whole bunch of circuits to lose power.
It seems crazy to me, but if they do that, then they do that.
It seems crazy to me, but if they do that, then they do that.