Power lines causing sparks in tree branches...

Totally off topic from photography, but you Nikonites are very diverse and very helpful and generous with your experiences and advice, so here's my situation:

Tonight I took the dogs out late and there was a moderate breeze. The trees in the front yard were rubbing against the power lines and throwing sparks. A few branches even caught fire, then burned out, and embers fell to the ground in my hedges that line the street.

I called the power company. They said, "it's not our deal, but call 911 if you really think it's an emergency." (The power company regularly sends landscape crews to prune the trees around their power line easement.)

Here's a pic I took with my phone and tried to enhance in PS:



Do trees spark and burn regularly when around power lines? If so, how have I never seen this before? I didn't feel like calling 911, raising a ruckus, then standing around for fire trucks to come roaring up the street, sirens ablazing, only to encounter nothing because the tree branches at issue had already made contact with the wires. For now, there are no more sparks, but it was quite a show for the five minutes I was outside.

I would call the power company again and ask to speak to a supervisor and explain the problem. Make sure you get the name to report to 911 when you all them. this is a dangerous situation in my opinion.

Well the more I thought about it the more I realized the power company can't fight fires, but they won't call 911 either because apparently they know this is pretty normal. The power crews won't come prune trees in the dark, and if I called the fire department they would probably be reluctant to spray their hoses all over the power lines. Looking around the internets, this is a regular happening. I guess it's just a miracle it doesn't cause more large fires.

Just now listening to my "goodnight" playlist before turning in, thought I heard voices, and sure enough the power company was outside the house. The men said it was normal for small branches to burn themselves off in high humidity, but if it had gotten bigger the transformer breaker would have tripped. They are now ordering another trim of my front trees.

One night late I heard what sounded like rifle shots, three of them, very loud, in rapid order, in my backyard. Called the cops and they found it was power line trouble and the power folks came out asap and fixed whatever it was. Hard to believe the first discharge did not trip a breaker.

Our power company is pretty good with checking out these types of problems--although they don't always come right away. Glad to hear they will do some trimming. Maybe a few other residents called as well.

Do you have a whole house surge protector? Our electrician suggested installing one in the electric box as it keeps outside surges from causing damage. We still need to use surge protectors at the outlets for any surges that start from inside. There have been several local residents who suffered damage due to power surges...some from transformers blowing (lots of antiquated equipment in this area) and others from drunk drivers hitting electric poles.

hark said:

Do you have a whole house surge protector?

Click to expand...

We have a whole-house natural gas backup generator. It has a huge switch between the meter and the circuit box to switch on the generator if the main power goes out. If I remember correctly, that huge switch also has a surge protector built in.

Calling 911 is useless unless something is actually on fire.

Call the electric utility and let them handle it from there.

Surge protectors will do nothing for this type of issue. It's an arc, not a surge.

480sparky said:

Calling 911 is useless unless something is actually on fire.

Call the electric utility and let them handle it from there.

Surge protectors will do nothing for this type of issue. It's an arc, not a surge.

Click to expand...

My intention for suggesting the surge protector was simply if the activity results in a blown transformer or something else that results in a surge.

I have seen that happen in my old neighborhood. I don't think anybody showed up to deal with it.

I have seen sagging power lines shaking so violently in a storm they would touch each other and arc and throw sparks. I took the power company over a month to rectify the situation. Tree branches shorting to the power lines and catching fire is also common.

One of our bad wildfires a couple of years ago was caused by a defective power line. But does the power company care? No, they just were awarded a rate increase so the users could foot the bill.