Unbelievable video

[KyLineman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmy9CHCewtg





I found this the other night, and it is unbelievable how long it burned for. Video says for hours, and it the end of the tape it is already night time and it is still burning. Watch the houses near the middle of the video, those fireman would not even go near them.

[linescum]

my first day as an apprentice in 1985 i was shown this video. i amazed me then and it still amazes me

[PK270]

Poor guy in the bucket for a few there, you can hear him yell "get me down", no shit there. You would think they could shut it down or the feeder would lock out, fuse or something.

Would like to know what happened, blowing the gutters off the house was crazy.

My Dad is retired from the FD, he has told many a troubleman - "my boys will watch that shit burn to the ground from inside this truck till you get some grounds on those lines". Troublemen thought it was kinda strange till they found out who he was - "son is a lineman" kinda explained things.

[PA BEN]

This happened close to a substation. The sub saw it as load and kept pumping the amps into the line.:eek:

[BillyMac]

That's just nucking futs !!:eek: :eek: don't you guys have protection on you're feeders. Surely somebody could have open a Air Break Switch or something back at the Sub before all that Shit happened. What all of 20 mins and still going....... CRAZY :eek: :eek:

[Squizzy]

Thats insane! and the houses gutters?!?! One of the comments on U-tube was something about having won the lottery due to the lawsuit for damages...

[PA BEN]

That's just nucking futs !!:eek: :eek: don't you guys have protection on you're feeders. Surely somebody could have open a Air Break Switch or something back at the Sub before all that Shit happened. What all of 20 mins and still going....... CRAZY :eek: :eek:

Most utility's don't have a crew at every substation. Crews do have work to do and some times it takes awile to get to the call. This could have happened after hours or even on a weekend.

[topgroove]

he got the 34.5kv into the distribution circuit so distribution fuses and station breakers were of little use here.

[thrasher]

I may not remember all the details right from the 80's but this is the story we were told at a Safety Meeting when the video was shown.
It happened on the Baltimore Gas and Electric System. The two days before BG&E had been installing SCADA on old (1950's) station oil circuit breakers equipped with mechanical relays. Somehow they hooked the wiring up wrong and defeated the lockout relays completely and parralleled the overcurrent relays (so the relays did not see the true currents on the lines). On the day of the video a R/W crew was cutting a double circuit 34.5 over 13.2 line. A large branch got away from them and tore down the 34.5 (on the circuit with the miswired SCADA) into the 13.2 line underneath. The 13.2 locked out but the 34.5 just kept closing back and because the current sensing was off the relays only slowly or occasionially opened. The 34.5 started feeding thru the 13.2 line and sending 600-700 volts in on the secondary wiring. The initial outage occured about 4pm (during rush hour) and it took BG&E over 2 hours to get someone to the station thru traffic that could open the line.
After this we started doing a LOT more operational checks on SCADA.

[BigClive]

That was pretty darn impressive. It's one of those things you're glad you saw but glad you weren't to blame.

Here's a rather dodgy clip showing a lineman arcing a line to ground deliberately!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOvLZNdJXas&NR=1

[KyLineman]

Thanks for the heads up on that video, it helps in understanding what went wrong, if you have more information of how it happened you can instruct the younger ones or apps about the dangers. Like a teaching tool of why you don't do certain things and your apps. does not understand why.

[Hemingray Insulators]

looks like something consumers energy built :D :eek:

[Special ED]

Had a similar instance happen to me a few years back in Louisville,KY. We got a call for wire down and on fire late one afternoon. When we got there a huge tree had fell across a 12KV circuit of 795 Hendrix cable and broke all three phases mid span. The phases were on the ground and burning like crazy and not one pole from them on the source side was a set of reclosers. Dispatch told us to open them but the fire was so intense and spreading you couldn't get near them so we had dispatch open the breakers in the sub. Most of our 12Kv is on scada here. Fire had burnt for a good 45 min before we could get it out. Reclosers and sub just saw everything as load and wouldn't lock out.

LG@E happend to have a supervisor come out to the site and he had filmed it and later showed it to the folks who work in the office. They just wanted to give them an idea of what we work with and I wasn't there to see the reaction but they said that when they showed the tape people in the front of the room got up and walked to the back because it was so disturbing..