If I worked for the power company, I would have made a decision to cut power to the WHOLE area if that was the only way. I would rather lose $ and possibly my job then see someone die or see houses go up in flames. I think the power company is all about the money.
Also, nowadays, with substation automation and computer control, the substation circuit breakers can be operated remotely (sattelite) with a computer at the POCO base station.
This is a prime example why Indianapolis Power and Light will not let any lineman within minimum approach distance without a live line restriction on the circuit. There is no doubt that "one shots" save lives. It did mine.
Before I issue and OK TO work hot with a hold in case of relay to any field crews I check my maps against their work location, Have the reclosing relays blocked at all terminals and tagged, I have Do Not Reclose tags applied to all CB control handles, I apply SCADA inhibits to prevent my from reclosing the circuit, and I update my mimic board to indicate work on the circuit.
that is a contract line crew pulling maintanance...it is a 35kV system with a 12 or 13kV underbuilt and the two circuits got together and relay had an issue with a breaker...we have watched this video in detail and discuss this same video in a lot of our safety meetings with our new hires....
that appears to be a two man bucket, dont see many tree crews in two man buckets, but i might be wrong maybe they use them in that part on the country,also looks like dbl. circuit
it's in harford county maryland. i live about 30 minutes away. I work for baltimore gas and electric contractors. They show us this same video in the classes we go through. They did say it was a tree trimmer.
How did that happen? The transformer that puts 120 volt electricity into your house isolates your electrical system from the multi kV power lines. So what I don't get is how does a power line fault burn the houses. The 120V comes from the transformers that step down the high voltage, while at the same time isolating the lower voltage from the higher voltage. So how could a fault (open, short, or arc) on the high voltage side of your house transformer cause problems on the low voltage side?
And yes it is obvious that the multiple thousands of volts from the power lines somehow got to the house. If not, you wouldn't see that kind of arcing on the gutters. So please tell me how you could get the multi kV from the power lines into the houses.
The broken high voltage wires would have fallen onto the low voltage lines and made contact causing the high voltage to appear on the low voltage lines as well....
But I thought the center tap(the transformer output is center tapped with + and - 120volts AC) was grounded on such transformers, so that if the multi kV power lines touched it, it would be directed to the ground (the difference between ground an lets say 10000 volts is 10000, and the difference between 10000 volts and 120 volts is 9880 or 10120 depending on which output it touched) So it should see any connector on the transformer as ground, which should protect the house.
Yes you made me think for a bit there! Its possible that a recloser or breaker on the low volatge side between the transformer and the contacting high voltage wire would have opended up under the large fault current, leaving the rest of the low voltage system floating.
Except for the fact that reclosers control the high voltage lines. They don't control the 120V to the house. I don't know exactly where they are placed but I believe that they are at substations, or other switchgear stations that handle very high voltage. I had been thinking, and I think a more likely situation was a ground fault, as the sparking gutters happened only after the high voltage lines fell.
Oops double post happened again. Well anyway here is why I think that made the problem. Even though the ground is a good conductor, it is a worse conductor that the power lines. The result is that the ground in the area of the fallen power lines actually becomes charged with the high voltage.
The drain pipes from the gutters come down and touch the ground (charging the pipes), but the gutter connection to the pipes is a poor electric connection (maybe rust (an insulating oxide like ceramic) and/or paint insulates), and since the gutter isn't charged, the HV sees it as ground. Then to get to this "ground"(actually the gutter, the high voltage arcs from the drain pipes up to the gutter. Also any 3-prong grounded appliance in the house would get fried (hence smoke from the houses).
I forgot to explain why ground being a worse conductor than wire would actually help charge the ground. It acts like a voltage divider. If the incoming conductance is lower (higher resistance in power lines), then the voltage out of the voltage divider is low. But (as this situation is) if the incoming conductance is higher (higher resistance in the ground) then the output voltage from the voltage divider is higher.
This has happed before too. I saw in the newspaper once that a power line fell near a farm (it didn't actually fall on the farm land itself). But every horse in the pasture was electrocuted just because they were standing on the electrified ground. The owner watched on helplessly and couldn't leave the house, or she would have faced the same fate as her horses. I'm surprised that the firemen in your video actually survived. They could have died just from standing on the charged ground.
In fact I'm surprised you (whoever filmed this) survived, because you were standing on the ground to film this. Please take more caution next time, because you might have just been lucky this time.
In that other incident I mentioned it was raining, and as raindrops approached the ground, the electricity actually arced up to the rain drops. The owner of the farm described blue flashes all over the ground as the rain drops came down.
And a metal fence near by in that other incident had corona discharge coming off sharp edges. The farm owner described "purple fire" coming off the fence posts. And large currents flowed through the fence too. The owner described a chain that held a gate close. She said that it was glowing red hot (obviously a VERY large current flowed through it and/or the chain was made from relatively thin wire).
Often there is a seperate breaker or recloser in the case of the distribution transformer ("polepig") on the low voltage side. Or at the least there are usualy fuses.
I teach at lineman school for the local utility and at the end of the first day the newbies are full of themselves and talking smack on each other. Then I put a copy of this on the TV. The room goes quite. And I say: " this boys is what we deal with every day - it is cetrin death in the palm of your hands and it is up to you to control it. And don't for one second forget all those pain-in-the-ass safety rules are printed with blood and tears, and there to make sure you go home at night."
No one on here knows what they are talking about. Since I am a Overhead lineman for BGE let me tell you what really happened. Tree Trimmers where trimming along Moores Mill Road when they dropped a large limb onto 33kv lines which pushed them down into the local, which is 13kv or 7620. They had a mechanical failure at Churchville substation which did not allow the reclosures to open up when it seen a fault. Which lead to a bunch of houses reciviing straight 7620 into there house service.
Granted the mechanical failure you mentioned could prevent the automatic recloser operation, but why couldn't the utility company go to the substation and manually cut the power to this area?
This is right near where I live right now, near Bel Air Maryland. The power company was probably BGE, that's what it's been ever since I can remember. Something similar to this happened in my neighbor's backyard, the line was arcing at one of the splices, and the line fell in their front yard and burned for about fifteen minutes until the power company finally turned off the line.
Never look directly at any high voltage line arcing, the arc produces a HIGHLY immense UV Rays which can damage your eyes. Just like looking at someone welding. Ultraviolet Radiation burns the eyes
Whats the name of that power company, Sparky's Electric? If I was in that nighborhood, I would have used my rifle to shoot out the fuse that supplies the step down transformer. That would at least maybe cut power to a house or two, and save them from catching fire.
Awesome video! That power company must be the most incompetent bunch of idiots in the world! Can you say lawsuit? Looks like those poor folks may have won the lottery. Sucks though, the money won't bring back the family heirlooms, or photos that got burnt up.
Where can I find the original video? And is there any more infromation about this incident? Any of the residents of that area or the power company out there care to comment on this? Enquiring minds want to know.... :)
the man in the bucket of the utility truck had escaped injury. A transformer was lighting up the area every few minutes and its fire would run up and down the wires on Moores Mill Road.
(Part 3)Fireman left work to help with the serious situation, and the EMS people were busy helping neighbors with the "welders eyes" they had received from watching the bright electrical arcs on the power lines. One house caught fire and many homes had such strong surges of current that their appliances were ruined. Luckily, no one was seriously injured. The entire day was spent preventing disastrous situations.
Very shortly afterward, transformers all over the nearby developments were burning. The officer in charge called for additional alarms and units from all over the county responded.
During the summer of 1988 there was a most unusual fire call. The original alert was "Transformer explosion with CPR Assist." The place: Moores Mill Road near Broadway. The first unit to arrive on the scene found, to their relief, that, miraculously,
I know all of these houses had to be rewired, if they did not burn down. I only hope no one was touching any kind of an electrical apliance when this happened...
And _I_ only hope that the tree trimmer whose irresponsibility or incompetence caused the limb to hit the lines in the first place got fired, or at least had some kind of reprimand for it! I would especially want that if it it was my house all those sparks were jumpin around on.
Actually most tree trimmers who work in Utility ROW are well trained,,this was an accident, pure and simple. What was criminal was the utility's failure to ensure proper protective relaying, and despite that, allowing the incident to continue for so long!!
Right! Good point I have to admit! My suspicion is that incidents like this one are more often caused by faulty equipment than any other person or thing.
I remember watching a Rescue 911 Episode about two kids home a lone and there house burned down and the cause I beleive was something similar that happened in this video.
I think feeder lines should have lightning arresters installed.
Most Feeders have lightning arrestors where overhead lines transition to underground cables. This would not have helped in this case. The feeder relayed but kept reclosing because the line protection was not configured properly. Arrestors would relay the line or take it to ground but then the breaker just closed again and re-energized the line.
In a typical neighborhood, you have 13,800 volts comming into the neighborhood which goes through tranformers and is stepped down to 110 / 220 volts. What it looks like here is the High voltage lines came across the lower lines somehow which sent voltage into these houses. First of all, the wires coming into these houses from the pole and also the wires inside the houses are rated for no more than 600 volts. Thats why you see the lines coming into the houses burning.
And, that's the really aggravating thing too about situations like this, that the firemen can't do anything until the power utility shuts off the electricity. All they can do is just stand around and watch, and try to put out any fires not directly in contact with the lines or arcs, to keep themselves safe.
I have to agree that this is the most impressive video posted on YouTube. This is quite a mess caused by a sloppy tree trimmer. I hope the tree trimmer was fined or given the bill for the damages and had their license revoked. It's especially scary at the 3:50 mark when sparks are coming from the underside of the roof of the building.
There is not another video on YouTube that even comes close to this display of sheer power that an out of control arc flash can cause. As the main drop to the house burns, the LV transformer at 3:11 begins to flashover; the buzzing coming from the internal windings trying to break loose. I have only seen soffit and siding arc damage on lightning-struck homes. This video deserves fifty stars.
One of the most impressive films I have ever seen on Youtube. The best example I have ever seen of the raw power of electricity. Electricity should always be taken seriously. The cameraman was very brave in this video! Many other people can learn from this situation with tree trimming or other risks with power lines.
If I worked for the power company, I would have made a decision to cut power to the WHOLE area if that was the only way. I would rather lose $ and possibly my job then see someone die or see houses go up in flames. I think the power company is all about the money.
seansy59 7 months ago
@chocolatelomonss hahaha i do!! lol
charmcityskater98 1 year ago
does anyone remember that bge commercial in the early 2000's were it sayed do not do not do noottt touch? miss the old days
ChocolateLemonss 1 year ago
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cadentavaricegrtrj 1 year ago
Lol, why didn't the utility company open the circuit breakers at the substation??
And, if that was a big issue for reliability, why not open the cutouts to the feeders in the local area??
Kartracer087 1 year ago
Also, nowadays, with substation automation and computer control, the substation circuit breakers can be operated remotely (sattelite) with a computer at the POCO base station.
Kartracer087 1 year ago
This is a prime example why Indianapolis Power and Light will not let any lineman within minimum approach distance without a live line restriction on the circuit. There is no doubt that "one shots" save lives. It did mine.
indylineman 2 years ago
Before I issue and OK TO work hot with a hold in case of relay to any field crews I check my maps against their work location, Have the reclosing relays blocked at all terminals and tagged, I have Do Not Reclose tags applied to all CB control handles, I apply SCADA inhibits to prevent my from reclosing the circuit, and I update my mimic board to indicate work on the circuit.
911doug 2 years ago
@911doug
WECC NET!
saltphisher 1 year ago
What's up with the train at the end?
DetroitLove4U 2 years ago
епать вот это короткое замыкание !!
9629885020 2 years ago
Dont you yanks have fuses? I pity the poor tree. If it was me I'd ring the electricity board and tell them to switch off.
lungburn 3 years ago
The reclosers/breaks had been taken out for testing. Meanwhile, a tree trimming crew started this mess.
rawtorque 2 years ago
You mean the breakers were shorted out of the circuit?
lungburn 2 years ago
that is a contract line crew pulling maintanance...it is a 35kV system with a 12 or 13kV underbuilt and the two circuits got together and relay had an issue with a breaker...we have watched this video in detail and discuss this same video in a lot of our safety meetings with our new hires....
beacheslineman 3 years ago
hold on 35kV means 35,000 volts right?.....yay..I SO SMART..I SO SMART!
navyseal100 3 years ago
its a fucking warzone out there.I would not know where t go.5/5
gamof 3 years ago
Wow! Wonder how loud in decibels that humming noise is? I think 115 decibels
or more..
mpowellmpowellmpowel 3 years ago
Man! The arching looks scary. I hope the people are okay, and noone got hurt.
GandaraVideos 3 years ago
I remember this day like it was last week, I saw the whole thing and was one of the many who called 911 and BGE, damn 1988 been a long time
dansgen1alero 3 years ago
that appears to be a two man bucket, dont see many tree crews in two man buckets, but i might be wrong maybe they use them in that part on the country,also looks like dbl. circuit
oneshot7200 3 years ago
it's in harford county maryland. i live about 30 minutes away. I work for baltimore gas and electric contractors. They show us this same video in the classes we go through. They did say it was a tree trimmer.
reh2185 3 years ago
the aspen tree trimmers were borrowing BGE bucket truck becuase they didn't have any that were tall enough
travistrain 3 years ago
10-15kV
maxik444 3 years ago
COOL!
crazyman50001 3 years ago
burn your lens?
jeabo0adhd 3 years ago
...my jaw hit the floor when I saw the house's gutters sparking...That was something else
mikeandtiff 3 years ago
How did that happen? The transformer that puts 120 volt electricity into your house isolates your electrical system from the multi kV power lines. So what I don't get is how does a power line fault burn the houses. The 120V comes from the transformers that step down the high voltage, while at the same time isolating the lower voltage from the higher voltage. So how could a fault (open, short, or arc) on the high voltage side of your house transformer cause problems on the low voltage side?
BenHutchinson1 3 years ago
And yes it is obvious that the multiple thousands of volts from the power lines somehow got to the house. If not, you wouldn't see that kind of arcing on the gutters. So please tell me how you could get the multi kV from the power lines into the houses.
BenHutchinson1 3 years ago
The broken high voltage wires would have fallen onto the low voltage lines and made contact causing the high voltage to appear on the low voltage lines as well....
frosty956 3 years ago
But I thought the center tap(the transformer output is center tapped with + and - 120volts AC) was grounded on such transformers, so that if the multi kV power lines touched it, it would be directed to the ground (the difference between ground an lets say 10000 volts is 10000, and the difference between 10000 volts and 120 volts is 9880 or 10120 depending on which output it touched) So it should see any connector on the transformer as ground, which should protect the house.
BenHutchinson1 3 years ago
Yes you made me think for a bit there! Its possible that a recloser or breaker on the low volatge side between the transformer and the contacting high voltage wire would have opended up under the large fault current, leaving the rest of the low voltage system floating.
frosty956 3 years ago
Except for the fact that reclosers control the high voltage lines. They don't control the 120V to the house. I don't know exactly where they are placed but I believe that they are at substations, or other switchgear stations that handle very high voltage. I had been thinking, and I think a more likely situation was a ground fault, as the sparking gutters happened only after the high voltage lines fell.
BenHutchinson1 3 years ago
Oops double post happened again. Well anyway here is why I think that made the problem. Even though the ground is a good conductor, it is a worse conductor that the power lines. The result is that the ground in the area of the fallen power lines actually becomes charged with the high voltage.
BenHutchinson1 3 years ago
The drain pipes from the gutters come down and touch the ground (charging the pipes), but the gutter connection to the pipes is a poor electric connection (maybe rust (an insulating oxide like ceramic) and/or paint insulates), and since the gutter isn't charged, the HV sees it as ground. Then to get to this "ground"(actually the gutter, the high voltage arcs from the drain pipes up to the gutter. Also any 3-prong grounded appliance in the house would get fried (hence smoke from the houses).
BenHutchinson1 3 years ago
I forgot to explain why ground being a worse conductor than wire would actually help charge the ground. It acts like a voltage divider. If the incoming conductance is lower (higher resistance in power lines), then the voltage out of the voltage divider is low. But (as this situation is) if the incoming conductance is higher (higher resistance in the ground) then the output voltage from the voltage divider is higher.
BenHutchinson1 3 years ago
This has happed before too. I saw in the newspaper once that a power line fell near a farm (it didn't actually fall on the farm land itself). But every horse in the pasture was electrocuted just because they were standing on the electrified ground. The owner watched on helplessly and couldn't leave the house, or she would have faced the same fate as her horses. I'm surprised that the firemen in your video actually survived. They could have died just from standing on the charged ground.
BenHutchinson1 3 years ago
In fact I'm surprised you (whoever filmed this) survived, because you were standing on the ground to film this. Please take more caution next time, because you might have just been lucky this time.
In that other incident I mentioned it was raining, and as raindrops approached the ground, the electricity actually arced up to the rain drops. The owner of the farm described blue flashes all over the ground as the rain drops came down.
BenHutchinson1 3 years ago
And a metal fence near by in that other incident had corona discharge coming off sharp edges. The farm owner described "purple fire" coming off the fence posts. And large currents flowed through the fence too. The owner described a chain that held a gate close. She said that it was glowing red hot (obviously a VERY large current flowed through it and/or the chain was made from relatively thin wire).
BenHutchinson1 3 years ago
Often there is a seperate breaker or recloser in the case of the distribution transformer ("polepig") on the low voltage side. Or at the least there are usualy fuses.
frosty956 3 years ago
What a nice place to live. Enjoyed a lot.
For how many hours the power remained on?
Never saw like that. A day time issue still running at night, so dangerous.
Thanks so much for recording and posting it.
farodkhaledmossad 4 years ago
GOOD LORD..
112Leaded 4 years ago
I teach at lineman school for the local utility and at the end of the first day the newbies are full of themselves and talking smack on each other. Then I put a copy of this on the TV. The room goes quite. And I say: " this boys is what we deal with every day - it is cetrin death in the palm of your hands and it is up to you to control it. And don't for one second forget all those pain-in-the-ass safety rules are printed with blood and tears, and there to make sure you go home at night."
minky10 4 years ago
No one on here knows what they are talking about. Since I am a Overhead lineman for BGE let me tell you what really happened. Tree Trimmers where trimming along Moores Mill Road when they dropped a large limb onto 33kv lines which pushed them down into the local, which is 13kv or 7620. They had a mechanical failure at Churchville substation which did not allow the reclosures to open up when it seen a fault. Which lead to a bunch of houses reciviing straight 7620 into there house service.
Aberdeen215 4 years ago
How did they stop the arcing, did they shut the power down at the source?
n310ea 4 years ago
Granted the mechanical failure you mentioned could prevent the automatic recloser operation, but why couldn't the utility company go to the substation and manually cut the power to this area?
scarecrow7771w 4 years ago
Was it all arcing in one area, or different areas of the grid?
n310ea 4 years ago
This is right near where I live right now, near Bel Air Maryland. The power company was probably BGE, that's what it's been ever since I can remember. Something similar to this happened in my neighbor's backyard, the line was arcing at one of the splices, and the line fell in their front yard and burned for about fifteen minutes until the power company finally turned off the line.
potatoflinger 4 years ago
Did anyone get hurt or killed durning this electric nightmare?
n310ea 4 years ago
What city/town is that?
n310ea 4 years ago
I remember watching this video in my Firefighter I & II class in 1994. Great video of the power of electricity
cavelzen 4 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Never look directly at any high voltage line arcing, the arc produces a HIGHLY immense UV Rays which can damage your eyes. Just like looking at someone welding. Ultraviolet Radiation burns the eyes
SpiritsoftheWolf 4 years ago 4
Whats the name of that power company, Sparky's Electric? If I was in that nighborhood, I would have used my rifle to shoot out the fuse that supplies the step down transformer. That would at least maybe cut power to a house or two, and save them from catching fire.
scarecrow7771w 4 years ago
Awesome video! That power company must be the most incompetent bunch of idiots in the world! Can you say lawsuit? Looks like those poor folks may have won the lottery. Sucks though, the money won't bring back the family heirlooms, or photos that got burnt up.
scarecrow7771w 4 years ago
Where can I find the original video? And is there any more infromation about this incident? Any of the residents of that area or the power company out there care to comment on this? Enquiring minds want to know.... :)
mxslick50 4 years ago
Did any of those houses burn down? what was the extent of the damage to the one that had the electrified / arcing soffit?
REWYRED 4 years ago
(Part 4) omit
backgam 4 years ago
(Part 5)
the man in the bucket of the utility truck had escaped injury. A transformer was lighting up the area every few minutes and its fire would run up and down the wires on Moores Mill Road.
backgam 4 years ago
(Part 3)Fireman left work to help with the serious situation, and the EMS people were busy helping neighbors with the "welders eyes" they had received from watching the bright electrical arcs on the power lines. One house caught fire and many homes had such strong surges of current that their appliances were ruined. Luckily, no one was seriously injured. The entire day was spent preventing disastrous situations.
backgam 4 years ago
(Part 2)
Very shortly afterward, transformers all over the nearby developments were burning. The officer in charge called for additional alarms and units from all over the county responded.
backgam 4 years ago
I found this on WEBCRAWLER (Part 1)
BEL AIR VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY
BEL AIR, MD
During the summer of 1988 there was a most unusual fire call. The original alert was "Transformer explosion with CPR Assist." The place: Moores Mill Road near Broadway. The first unit to arrive on the scene found, to their relief, that, miraculously,
backgam 4 years ago
The segment at 3:50 is especialy scary with the way
thousands of volts are shooting through the awning of
that house! I image all of the applicances went up
with that. :O
blinkingblythe 4 years ago
I know all of these houses had to be rewired, if they did not burn down. I only hope no one was touching any kind of an electrical apliance when this happened...
SSparks555 4 years ago
And _I_ only hope that the tree trimmer whose irresponsibility or incompetence caused the limb to hit the lines in the first place got fired, or at least had some kind of reprimand for it! I would especially want that if it it was my house all those sparks were jumpin around on.
tall32guy 4 years ago
Actually most tree trimmers who work in Utility ROW are well trained,,this was an accident, pure and simple. What was criminal was the utility's failure to ensure proper protective relaying, and despite that, allowing the incident to continue for so long!!
mxslick50 4 years ago
Right! Good point I have to admit! My suspicion is that incidents like this one are more often caused by faulty equipment than any other person or thing.
tall32guy 4 years ago
I remember watching a Rescue 911 Episode about two kids home a lone and there house burned down and the cause I beleive was something similar that happened in this video.
I think feeder lines should have lightning arresters installed.
electron2601 4 years ago
Most Feeders have lightning arrestors where overhead lines transition to underground cables. This would not have helped in this case. The feeder relayed but kept reclosing because the line protection was not configured properly. Arrestors would relay the line or take it to ground but then the breaker just closed again and re-energized the line.
911doug 4 years ago
In a typical neighborhood, you have 13,800 volts comming into the neighborhood which goes through tranformers and is stepped down to 110 / 220 volts. What it looks like here is the High voltage lines came across the lower lines somehow which sent voltage into these houses. First of all, the wires coming into these houses from the pole and also the wires inside the houses are rated for no more than 600 volts. Thats why you see the lines coming into the houses burning.
SSparks555 4 years ago
And, that's the really aggravating thing too about situations like this, that the firemen can't do anything until the power utility shuts off the electricity. All they can do is just stand around and watch, and try to put out any fires not directly in contact with the lines or arcs, to keep themselves safe.
tall32guy 4 years ago
You don't usually find videos this old of sparking lines, transformers, etc. Pretty cool that you found it! :-)
tall32guy 4 years ago
I have to agree that this is the most impressive video posted on YouTube. This is quite a mess caused by a sloppy tree trimmer. I hope the tree trimmer was fined or given the bill for the damages and had their license revoked. It's especially scary at the 3:50 mark when sparks are coming from the underside of the roof of the building.
woodlandwarrior39 4 years ago
There is not another video on YouTube that even comes close to this display of sheer power that an out of control arc flash can cause. As the main drop to the house burns, the LV transformer at 3:11 begins to flashover; the buzzing coming from the internal windings trying to break loose. I have only seen soffit and siding arc damage on lightning-struck homes. This video deserves fifty stars.
envisionelec 4 years ago
One of the most impressive films I have ever seen on Youtube. The best example I have ever seen of the raw power of electricity. Electricity should always be taken seriously. The cameraman was very brave in this video! Many other people can learn from this situation with tree trimming or other risks with power lines.
This video is definitely 5 stars + !!!
XmegaPresident 4 years ago
WOW very impressive video! Great Job! I hope nobody was hurt!
XmegaPresident 4 years ago