Down Line Between Power Poles

[lulu5kamz]

A line came down in our yard last night, along with a shower of sparks. Power flickered briefly but stayed on. The line broke right above our yard. It was a support line for the primary.

 

[bigredfish]

Wow! that'll get your attention.

Are you safely away from the fires?

 

[lulu5kamz]

Wow! that'll get your attention.

Are you safely away from the fires?

About 500 miles away from those fires. Northern California has had a normal rainfall, while Southern California has had below average and is in a drought conditions for some areas.

 

[TonyR]

Thanks for the excellent video, Lulu.....now for my diatribe:

After working in the roadway on signals and lighting for 31 years but retired since 2004 I still can't help but be amazed by the carelessness and stupidity of some utility workers. Since 29 years of that time was in Santa Clara county where you're at and closely with PG&E I can appreciate that particular PG&E worker's failures:

• He parked in the roadway, facing oncoming traffic, blocking visibility of stop sign, forcing traffic to cross over double yellow lines and into oncoming traffic
• No traffic cones, warning signs or any semblance of traffic control
• No vest for personsal safety when in the roadway

To be frank, he deserves to be written up by his supervisor for those infractions. I've heard the "well, I was only in the roadway for 3 or 4 minutes" excuse and it makes my hair stand up. It takes less than 2 seconds for your lack of proper procedure to cause someone's death, yours or theirs, not to mention the liabilities your infractions place on your employer.

 

[Keyboard]

@TonyR , I had to watch the video again to see what you are talking about. Now that you point out the errors of the workman's ways, I agree whole heartily. He had no regard for the safety of others or himself. I didn't notice any of that the 1st time.

Plus, isn't he handling a live wire?

 

[TonyR]

@TonyR , I had to watch the video again to see what you are talking about. Now that you point out the errors of the workman's ways, I agree whole heartily. He had no regard for the safety of others or himself. I didn't notice any of that the 1st time.

Plus, isn't he handling a live wire?

The wire was likely a galvanized guy wire that was either going to a ground anchor or pole-to-pole for lateral stability and was cut by the falling high voltage primary wire.......guy wires are grounded so when the primary touched it it arced so intensely it cut it like a hot knife thru butter.

 

[lulu5kamz]

Here is a photo of the line that broke, indicated by the red oval. It was a support line. It is between the primary and secondary lines. One of the primary lines was damaged but still worked. They came back at night to fix it. They turned off the power for about 30 minutes to fix the lines. Before the line broke, we saw about 4 or 5 showers of sparks just like in the video for about 90 minutes before the line broke.

 

[TonyR]

Here is a photo of the line that broke, indicated by the red oval. It was a support line. It is between the primary and secondary lines. One of the primary lines was damaged but still worked. They came back at night to fix it. They turned off the power for about 30 minutes to fix the lines. Before the line broke, we saw about 4 or 5 showers of sparks just like in the video for about 90 minutes before the line broke.

View attachment 211751

On the backside where we cannot see it in the image that thrubolt is grounded; every cleat or thimble that has a guy or support wire is also grounded on the backside, secured under a curved washer and nut.