This was caused by an Asplundh Tree trimming crew. They were trimming the hi-line with a Hi-Ranger and the elbow of the lift broke a limb off and fell onto the lines. This should have blown fuses close to the short, but didn't. Lots of appliances, televisions and main panels burnt up and Baltimore Gas and Electric had to put out some serious money. It melted vinyl siding, shot gutter spikes out of the fascia and all types of crazy shit.
I trimmed this same line out five years after this.
Only shows what I've said all along - the power companies - no matter which one, are run by and employ the least competent troglodyte morons they can possibly find. Why does it take so frigging long to answer the emergency line? Why does it take so long for them to put down the doughnuts, climb their asses into their trucks, and show up?
@melevy becuz of the proximity of the sub and the level of fault current there is no jumping up and shutting it down. we hate for anything like this to happen but we have to follow safety procedures that keep us and the public as safe as possible.
A phase primary feeder to substation fell onto A phase distribution load feeder from substation. It bypassed the transformer in the substation at the contact point.
i couldn't tell in the video but was the houses catching fire because of outside power lines laying on them or was the houses catching because of the main ouside hot laying across low voltage wires going to that house or even the naked ground that leads to the houses in the low voltage wire braids? just curious.
The high voltage line went to ground and caught the house on fire thru the ufer (ground). The gutters and metal piping were grounded to the panel. As long as the soil had moisture in it, it would have made an excellent conductor.
The man in the bucket boomed into the primary the voltale is 7200. You can hear him say get me down. The guys on the ground using the ground controls made contact with the lower boom and the reason the cutouts didn't work was because of an OCR failure. (Oil reclosure)
I was an electrican's apprentice that saw something similar happen; it took the fire dept. 80+ rings to get a response from the utility's emergency hotline and an hour after that for someone to come out and shut it off. In the meantime, the Fire Dept. put out fires around the damaged equipment, but wouldn't go near the source until it was de-energized. The cause was an un-used ground lug that nicked a phase conductor in the energized panel while we were examining an existing installation.
It definitely looks like the primary voltage wires had fallen into, or at least arced to the secondary wires feeding the houses. creating a path to ground through pipes/gutters/wires/wood. There could be many reason that the fault conditions.were not relayed out properly.
The vid shows two that caught fire.. but there were more. The was trying to ground thru any source and unfortunately it was through the customer homes along that street.
From what I remember from the course instructor, they could not turn the power off (Obvisouly). I am not sure exactly why. How frustrating... I am sure the people wholost their homes probably sued the electrial company. Thanks for your comment
How much damage? Fried computers and other electronics that made lots of smoke? Or were there actual flames that you couldn't see because the camera was outside the houses? Did the entire inside get gutted by the fire? Or just lots of smoke pouring out?
love you mary its Aaron
16myMari 3 weeks ago
hi mary its Aaron
16myMari 3 weeks ago
Bad Day to be with that company
Homegrown174 2 months ago
This was caused by an Asplundh Tree trimming crew. They were trimming the hi-line with a Hi-Ranger and the elbow of the lift broke a limb off and fell onto the lines. This should have blown fuses close to the short, but didn't. Lots of appliances, televisions and main panels burnt up and Baltimore Gas and Electric had to put out some serious money. It melted vinyl siding, shot gutter spikes out of the fascia and all types of crazy shit.
I trimmed this same line out five years after this.
daddo3123 1 year ago
Im surprised the lines didnt burn themselves in half before they even shut off the power
matteng1997 1 year ago
Comment removed
RhinoVirus21 1 year ago
Very High fault current when your close to a sub. FYI burning up bucket trucks is a good way to end a line career........
RhinoVirus21 1 year ago
Now that's a powerful sound
maxell07c0 1 year ago
Glad i don't have to pay that power bill.
mrcheesesmith 1 year ago
...my amp fried my car stereo subwoofers like that one time.... think i was jamming to It's electric..boggey woogey woogey.....
BlaineWherley 1 year ago
Only shows what I've said all along - the power companies - no matter which one, are run by and employ the least competent troglodyte morons they can possibly find. Why does it take so frigging long to answer the emergency line? Why does it take so long for them to put down the doughnuts, climb their asses into their trucks, and show up?
melevy 1 year ago
@melevy becuz of the proximity of the sub and the level of fault current there is no jumping up and shutting it down. we hate for anything like this to happen but we have to follow safety procedures that keep us and the public as safe as possible.
rgbolster3 1 year ago
I'm getting sea sick watching this
battleship62 1 year ago
they show this as a training video at my line school to show what a primary crossover to secondaries can do to a house...
localmotionnj 2 years ago
did you intentionally move around just to screw with us, or do you seriously have no f'in idea on how to work a video camera??????????????????????
shadowwbn 2 years ago
crappy camera man
tryithere 2 years ago
from the accent, it sounds like this happened in the baltimore area..harford county maryland
lysippus 2 years ago
A phase primary feeder to substation fell onto A phase distribution load feeder from substation. It bypassed the transformer in the substation at the contact point.
johnmason2354 2 years ago
i couldn't tell in the video but was the houses catching fire because of outside power lines laying on them or was the houses catching because of the main ouside hot laying across low voltage wires going to that house or even the naked ground that leads to the houses in the low voltage wire braids? just curious.
EagleTalons1 2 years ago
Probably close to the sub . The sub saw it as load not a fault , won't trip breakers then.
linemanbill 2 years ago 3
The high voltage line went to ground and caught the house on fire thru the ufer (ground). The gutters and metal piping were grounded to the panel. As long as the soil had moisture in it, it would have made an excellent conductor.
nyelec01 2 years ago
wow.... hold off anyone?
mATTskyward 2 years ago
The man in the bucket boomed into the primary the voltale is 7200. You can hear him say get me down. The guys on the ground using the ground controls made contact with the lower boom and the reason the cutouts didn't work was because of an OCR failure. (Oil reclosure)
boredom3 3 years ago
I'm surprised the residents didn't panic. For such high power (talking megawatts here) this short wasn't enough to trip the fuses.
therealromster 3 years ago 2
That sucks, did anyone get hurt? or was it just homes lost?
darkwolf99 3 years ago 2
I was an electrican's apprentice that saw something similar happen; it took the fire dept. 80+ rings to get a response from the utility's emergency hotline and an hour after that for someone to come out and shut it off. In the meantime, the Fire Dept. put out fires around the damaged equipment, but wouldn't go near the source until it was de-energized. The cause was an un-used ground lug that nicked a phase conductor in the energized panel while we were examining an existing installation.
Trotskysghost 3 years ago 3
Wow - thanks for the response. In this video it is amazing to see how long it takes to get the power turned off...
Thanks for the post!
erok
erok2020 3 years ago
where the hell were the fuse cutouts? arround my town if there's a short large fuses on poles on the circuit blow, cutting it off.
and the're had to be a cutout somewhere they could've turned off. like at a substation
wildfire19861987 3 years ago
What the hell caught the houses on fire? The arc was nowhere near them.
jsncrso 3 years ago
It definitely looks like the primary voltage wires had fallen into, or at least arced to the secondary wires feeding the houses. creating a path to ground through pipes/gutters/wires/wood. There could be many reason that the fault conditions.were not relayed out properly.
AjFlyer98 3 years ago
reclosures or breakers not working like they should
mikefla31 3 years ago
How many house caught fire?
chickadee2 3 years ago
The vid shows two that caught fire.. but there were more. The was trying to ground thru any source and unfortunately it was through the customer homes along that street.
erok2020 3 years ago
Feel sorry for the people, but that was an awesome video. Why did it take so long to turn it off?? Also, what happened to the houses???
1nm1 3 years ago
From what I remember from the course instructor, they could not turn the power off (Obvisouly). I am not sure exactly why. How frustrating... I am sure the people wholost their homes probably sued the electrial company. Thanks for your comment
erok2020 3 years ago
How much damage? Fried computers and other electronics that made lots of smoke? Or were there actual flames that you couldn't see because the camera was outside the houses? Did the entire inside get gutted by the fire? Or just lots of smoke pouring out?
BenHutchinson1 2 years ago