Power Line Down with Arcing and Fire: Threatens Home in Mount Prospect

[@weekdaycycling]

I would actually be heart-attacked if I were that house owner watching my entire house set on fire.

[@cellogirl11rw55]

Even though the firemen couldn't turn off the electricity to the power line, it was still good to call them in case the house caught fire.

[@repairservice4416]

Mmm- makes me wonder if I Should have my own hotstick on hand in case I have to pull the fuse myself to save my house? What was the response time?

[@treegasmicthearborist5763]

repair service need a long hot stick also be safe!

[@johnhershey4010]

A hot stick cost around $600-800 each

[@peterwillymcjohnsonator7837]

your right. the downstream recloser probably just thinks its a heavy load/ not a short. so it is up to the power company to pull the cutout fuse to cut the power.

[@AriBenDavid]

These arcs don't take as much power as a normal load, so the circuit breakers often don't trip.

[@KenHi29]

This is what happened in our backyard a couple of years ago. The power line just fell right after we went inside. Scary

[@davidca96]

Primaries are always really scary, its not your average 240v these are 7200v lines you dont even have to touch to get killed. This one here is a MESS, super scary.

[@JoshuaRando]

+davidca96 I think i've seen too many videos of the danger of power lines. Wish I could spread the word and how you should not under-estimate their power. Even how innocent they look when normally stringing across polls.

[@nicoleabrahamson1883]

@@JoshuaRando my worst nightmare, since elementary school! And I graduated from hs in 2002!

[@Wolfgamingnetwork]

1:22 ive never seen green lights on an ambulance before

[@gantmj]

Those erupting molten blobs are awesome.

[@fartz666]

I would've run over and moved the line away from the house by hand so nobody gets hurt. As long as you're touching the ground, electricity can't hurt you.

[@chrisbauer1925]

Are you just trolling every video with downed wires? Dangerous misinformation...

[@fartz666]

@@chrisbauer1925 maybe not EVERY video, but yeah, that's what the internet is all about

[@MultiMonster69]

why didnt they use a chem extinguisher and put that little fire out

[@Jigg007]

Probably because that little fire is backed up by anywhere from 600 to 15,000 volts.

[@ShredaSpud]

Firefighters and power company union employees should have applied for a liquor license and served beer. Woulda been quicker and made them some money.

[@billmilosz]

ComEd - the electrical supplier in Illinois- has a motto: "Powering Lives" hahahahaha

[@amandagirl8042]

in canada firemen carry the poles to pull switches so they dont have to wait for a union employee to get off their ass and show up

[@mernokimuvek]

In Europe the substation protection would trip after a few seconds the wire breaks.

[@chrisbauer1925]

@@mernokimuvek Yep. Here in North America there is no ground fault detection on medium voltage distribution lines. There is only phase overcurrent protection. That's because we utilize a multigrounded neutral system where much of the neutral current returns to the substation via the multiple earth rods anyways, so any sensitive ground fault protection would trip on normal load imbalance. In this case, the impedance of the fault was high enough to the point where this simply looked like load to the protective relays.

[@mernokimuvek]

@@chrisbauer1925 I read on some US forums that ungrounded delta distribution is not that uncommon in North America.

[@chrisbauer1925]

@@mernokimuvek It does exist in some areas, but the vast majority of medium voltage distribution circuits here are grounded wye with a multi-grounded neutral. Another interesting practice is that the primary neutral is shared with the secondary neutral/ground conductor. So the neutral wire serves as primary neutral, secondary neutral, and secondary equipment ground. It's like a TN-C service but the shared neutral/ protective ground is also the primary neutral. This can create stray voltages on customer grounding systems and equipment in the event of a utility losing the neutral, even if the break is miles away! Single phase distribution transformers are connected from phase to neutral, allowing for single phase laterals to extend off the main three phase line. One exception is that many utilities in California do not run a neutral out with the distribution lines, and instead connect transformers phase to phase. These lines are still often fed by a grounded wye transformer, they just don't carry the neutral out with the line.

[@mernokimuvek]

@@chrisbauer1925 Im not sure why single phase distribution transformers remained common in North America, I have never seen one in Europe. Its also easy to get 3 phase service even in small houses. The weirdest distribution is in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil: They often run only a single high voltage wire and use ground electrodes near the distribution transformer to get a neutral on the MV side.

[@collegegirl201418]

It's like a mini volcano eruption

[@tiger2338]

That is what I call a shocking experience.

[@seatboi]

WAH WAH WAH WAHHHH...BADOOM ...SHHH! LOL :)

[@WillPhoneman]

As close as that is to the meter, it may be hitting the ground rod and arcing off of that, or just the ground itself. I'd hate to think of what that would do to my electronics if I lived there, let alone the HOUSE!

[@train672]

Many thanks for posting this interesting video, It's guys like you that make you tube such a great place :-)

[@lifeofbean2556]

If you really want to get that close to a downed 13.2kV line, be my guest.

[@peterwillymcjohnsonator7837]

nothing anyone can do until the power company cuts the power (pulls the fuse out). then it can be safely removed and fixed. unless you want a death wish.

[@lenmarfox2947]

I'm soo glad we don't have high voltage lines like this over here.

[@nokiot9]

I hope they dug up that tube of fulgurite it left behind once it was safe.

[@nicoleabrahamson1883]

A collector's piece, indeed

[@ethanon2]

Not an electrician here, but ill take a stab at possibly why. In the grand scheme the substation sees this as a small almost negligible disturbance in the flow. If it were to trip on disturbances this small it would trip consistently. Only large disturbances such as transformer explosions or very large arcs are enough to trip it, which is why after each of those two occurrences it trips it and stops. Not a fact, just my amateur opinion on it as a lover of all things science.

[@michaelcrowley7330]

It sees it as load and not a fault. Also, unless this is really close to a substation there would a recloser or line fuse for protection upstream from the location

[@reginabundy5139]

what caused the lines to fall?

[@GrexTheCrabasitor]

gravity

[@russell4788]

@ 3:45 there is a large branch on the front lawn, believe that was the cause

[@waleedahmed4591]

newton and that fucking apple tree xD

[@chronically.advocating]

My question is how do you bring down just the conductors and not disturb the comm. lines underneath in any way? Anybody else see this or just me? Very curious as to how that was accomplished.

[@johnclyne6350]

Communication wires have a steel messenger. The messenger holds their wires up. Electric wires are either copper or most likely aluminum. One high energy flash with aluminum will burn it down on the first flash. Copper is more resilient. However that has it’s limits

[@skipd9164]

I bet that electric service line went threw the tree

[@johnclyne6350]

@@skipd9164 Ugh, that is not a service line burning on the ground. That is the primary (high voltage) burning there. Services (120/240 volt) pop on the ground. They will burn themselves clear eventually after they burn the through the neutral or another path to ground. Primary burns with purpose & only goes out when the fault current exceeds the rated fuse size or trips the reclosure upstream. Based on experience, I’d say it’s the later. Any wire especially one on the ground should not be approached. Call 911 (like in this case). Emergency services will cordon off the area & wait for the power company to respond. So, when crews arrive in power company trucks & then drive off. They are being directed to the next device to safely turn off power. Emergency services have permission to pass through traffic lights & their vehicles are equipped with bright lights & sirens. Power company vehicles do not have that permission. They must follow all the rules of the road. Hence why they arrive much later. Emergency services cover typically one town or city. Power company crews cover a much larger area. Hence why it often takes 30 minutes to an hour to respond.

[@Moffat_Clarkson]

yea wtf happened????

[@HopeRunsDeep22]

Normal Person: Omg those power lines just fell! Lets call 911! The Firemen will save us and fix this! Fire Fighters: Shit.. Its a electrical fire involving power lines... Call the Linemen.

[@Barefoot0Walker]

this has to be one of the most frustrating events for the firefighters: they can do nothing until the power is cut! at least the grass wasn’t too dry, or there would’ve been a more serious problem. at least comed get to the scene quickly enough to prevent the house from catching fire.

[@reginabundy5139]

how does the firefighters deal with that? is there people in the home?

[@treegasmicthearborist5763]

most likely not firefighters are what you call retards when it come to electric so they sit there with their thumbs up their asses wait for the utility to come turn that section of line off till it is repaired if you notice all the people walking by the line that is a big no no and could have killed them with ease

[@kasperseverijnse]

I can't believe they're shutting down the power.

[@corbonzo1]

it wasnt a fire, it was High voltage arching to the ground

[@corblaak8051]

So oldfashoined powerlines obove ground, here in Netherlands all powerlines are in the ground except HV 380 Kv lines etc.

[@seatboi]

I KNOW, right? Our electrical systems are hundreds of years old & are badly in need of up-dating! AND, YES they should all be underground lines! MUCH more dependable & SAFE!

[@skipd9164]

This is why you should never let trees grow near power lines or gas lines even though underground

[@hemimuscleman5683]

Very frustrating, because it's not like a normal fire that you can put out with water. Putting liquid on this is just a death wish.

[@stephaneduguay7267]

Tok a long time for the electric company to show up.🔥🤔

[@bradnoga]

there is a lot to be said for URD

[@jsncrso]

America is also wayyyy bigger than the tiny county of Denmark.

[@squishvr174]

i bet the breaker beside it was having a stroke

[@ABunchOfCrazyStuff]

That's wild!

[@phild8095]

My father got out of WWII and went to work for the electric company as an emergency lineman. I was a kid when he went in an emergency to work in another state after a hurricane. 5 weeks later he got home. That summer he had an in ground pool installed. a few things about this, I'm surprised a local distribution fuse did not blow. I'll bet that did terrible things to a lot of electronics in the neighborhood and the neighborhood power transformer.

[@skipd9164]

I actually worked in the gas utility and in the winter those checks were unbelievable. I later became district inspector and responded to hit poles and downed lines to verify no problem with gas lines and Mark them

[@mahees6076]

Why did they take so long to turn off

[@oreojr982000]

At 0:45 you can see a limb fell from a tree or an entire tree fell, taking the lines down

[@lmgtech]

good ,thank you for replying

[@lmgtech]

why dont power line trips? please anyone help me.

[@Harley365]

Just grab it with your shoes on your hands and move it .lol

[@I.AM.Issachar.]

you're doing it wrong you have to wear a sandwich bag on each hand Lol

[@BenjaminEsposti]

@Frank Lee I can't believe you said that! How about you make a DC generation plant, and see how well that works out! I'll warn you though, low voltage DC will require HUGE conductors, and will be very inefficient. Contrary to what those "know-it-alls" taught you, AC is quite efficient compared to DC. Yep, AC causes magnetic fields, BUT, DC does too! AND, with AC, the power flows through the magnetic field. Thus you can use less metal for a wire to carry the same power. You obviously are not an electrical engineer, as no EE would say such a thing! Seriously, don't be gullible enough to believe what they say! The voltage transformers will also be more expensive, less reliable than a simple low frequency transformer, and they will be more complex, hence having a greater effect on the environment manufacturing wise!

[@ApolloWasReal]

You have it a little wrong. AC power does not "flow through the magnetic field". It flows as volts times amps just as DC does; it's just that they continuously vary. AC is used because transformers can step up voltage for transmission to reduce the current for the same power, and losses go as current squared. You can actually get more power through a given wire with DC than AC. With AC the insulation must be rated for the peak voltage (1.4xRMS) while for DC, peak = RMS. And there are no inductive losses on a DC line. That's why some long distance, very high voltage transmission lines use DC. Yes, I am an EE.

[@jwblantCU]

ApolloWasReal You're exactly right. Very well spoken. To explain further, the losses are related to the current squared. In AC, the current varies up and down continuously which allows for an overall lower RMS current than the constant waveform of the DC current. Less current means less losses. I was also going to mention the HVDC lines as well. The idea is to have an astronomical voltage level which will lead to minimal currents. This allows for VERY long transmission distances with no inductive losses.

[@ApolloWasReal]

dan staves DC certainly can be transmitted long distances; some of the largest and longest distance transmission lines in the world are DC. In fact, it is more efficient than AC for a given set of conductors and insulators, which is why it is used. It is especially valuable in underground and undersea transmission. The original problem with DC (i.e., during the famous Edison vs Westinghouse battle) wasn't DC itself, it was the lack of any practical way to transform DC to the high voltages needed for efficient long-haul transmission from large generators to distant loads (e.g, the hydroelectric generators at Niagra Falls NY to NYC). Since then, the problem has been solved with modern solid-state switching technology, and I expect to see DC used more in the grid, mostly from the top down (i.e., largest and longest lines first).

[@ApolloWasReal]

Will Blanton Actually, the current capacity of a conductor is almost the same for DC and AC. By definition, the RMS value of an AC current is the equivalent DC current. E.g., an AC current of 1 A RMS varies sinusoidally between 0 and 1.4 A peak but is equivalent to a DC current of 1A in both conductor heating and power delivery into a given resistive load. That said DC still has several advantages over AC that appear mainly at high power levels and over long distances. First, DC penetrates an entire conductor while AC currents tend to stay towards the skin, using it somewhat less efficiently. This is the "skin effect", which increases with frequency. Capacitive charging consumes part of the current capacity of an AC line, and this can be very significant in underground and undersea cables which are built very compactly (and therefore have a lot of capacitance). Inductive losses are also an issue in some lines. And one of the biggest problems with large AC lines is "power factor". RMS volts times RMS amps does not always give watts in an AC circuit because the voltage and current waveforms may not (and usually are not) exactly in phase. In effect, some of the power flows backwards along the line during each cycle, consuming some of its capacity for no gain. DC lines always operate at unity power factor.

[@bradnoga]

ApolloWasReal Actually Thomas Edison vs. Nikolai Tesla, dc vs ac

[@user-cd7vm7ky8g]

at 0:13 you can see a naked guy running on the left side

[@cellogirl11rw55]

MrBeast's 2nd Son He has shorts on.

[@petermarshall1634]

Funny how the fuses didn't blow...

[@Videogamer-555]

Not enough current. The ground at that spot wasn't conductive enough. I've seen videos on YT with high-current powerline faults, and they are super blindingly bright like the sun itself, and throw thousands of sparks off of any other metal that gets it and melted by the arc, and these high-current failures are usually what blow the fuses.

[@robblacie2377]

Over time ding ding

[@cannack]

+Joseph Wieland first of all you should never mix water with electricity especially that much, you average plug is 120 volts that line over 5 times that. its not that there would get shocked if the sprayed it with water they would make a bigger problem

[@shokikoyagune2224]

They wait for the power utility to shut the power off then they can go and put out the fire :T plus to put out a electrical fire first turn everything off in your circuit box and then get either baking soda, sand, a C02 fire extinguisher, or if the electricity is off water then call the fire department :T grease fires are more dangerous actually

[@skink356209]

***** Depends. That was an primary line, i.e. most likely over 6 KV

[@shokikoyagune2224]

skink35620 True so It would take longer to contact the electric company to shut off that part of the grid which leads why the Fire dept couldn't touch it intill PG&E gave a all clear.

[@skink356209]

***** and when the the line goes dead there really isn't much to do unless it managed to start a decent size fire

[@shokikoyagune2224]

yep

[@jddr.jkindle9708]

I like my brick vernier home.

[@crowmagg1]

pee on it

[@kennsaunders1690]

How long does it take to get these yahoos here to cut off the power before the house burns down. Not a priority.

[@oreojr982000]

later on in the video you can see it was a limb from the tree

[@iAmIronMan0605]

put some water on it

[@stupid2437]

I hope you're playing

[@mca1960]

because of their wooden doghouses, called home, they will burn very well....

[@loscheninmotion9920]

how about you shut the fuck up? ok? thx

[@harmanaulakh7529]

Wood is better against fires

[@fishodorvagina]

Illinois has more power line falls than any other state.

[@ridleywolf1191]

The great fire of London what the duck is that that flame right there is like satan coming back from hell

[@tamarawalther4524]

That didn't make any sense! The utility workers show up, start and stop the truck 4 or 5 times, then drive around the corner TWICE but do absolutely nothing! SMH

[@nicholasd1317]

That would've burned that house down.

[@EphemeralProductions]

That cop and that guy at the beginning area a couple of the dumbest I've seen in a while. They walked pretty close to that line. The step potential in the ground could have fried em for all they knew! You never get that close and always stay at LEAST 20 feet away

[@saminam2228]

30-35 feet at least actually

[@Nautical_Parsnip]

don't just stand there DO SOMETHING THERE HOUSE IS ABOUT TO BURN DOWN!!!!!!

[@canadiantrailatv]

Yeah rly they aren't doing anything to save this house

[@mjskal_85]

Cant put water on a live wire while its burning (or you will get hurt or killed) thats why the power company is called to turn off the power.

[@mjskal_85]

LabTech its called safety first cant put water on a live wire while its on fire

[@deznutz6986]

where the fuck is the power company

[@reginabundy5139]

what's so funny? quit laughing.

[@mikeymcmikeface5599]

bad video

[@SaucyBegger25]

if that was my house I would be like are they taking the piss? turn the fucking power lines off