Whoops.

[Dalmatian90]

My town today:

Believe those are 138kV lines.

Guy was cutting firewood, had the notch cut (to fell it away from the lines, obviously), wind gust rocked the tree.

When the tree rocked back, tree snapped -- sort of like a barber chair -- and fell in contact with the lines. Fortunately no injuries, helped by the fact the woodcutter had already taken off running when the try started to break.

Knocked out about 5,000 customers with a near total blackout in two towns and impacting another five.

 

[PA Plumber]

My town today:

Believe those are 138kV lines.

Guy was cutting firewood, had the notch cut (to fell it away from the lines, obviously), wind gust rocked the tree.

When the tree rocked back, tree snapped -- sort of like a barber chair -- and fell in contact with the lines. Fortunately no injuries, helped by the fact the woodcutter had already taken off running when the try started to break.

Knocked out about 5,000 customers with a near total blackout in two towns and impacting another five.

Is the woodcutter responsible for all the expenses? I have dropped trees along power lines and it give me a miserable feeling in the pit of my stomach to think about things going wrong.

Nearly every one dropped had to be wedged against the lean to keep from hitting the wires. And every one dropped had wedges in them encouraging the tree to go away from the lines.

I didn't do them all and there are still quite a few left that had more lean than I was comfortable with. I would rather have mother nature take out the power than me!

 

[danrclem]

I've dropped one tree near power lines. It was a big 40"+ oak. I had it chained to another tree and tightened with a winch to make sure it fell the right way.

I'd hate to be in that guys shoes.

 

[Dalmatian90]

Power company supervisor on the scene shrugged his shoulders -- he really wasn't sure in this situation. There's a question too over maintenance of the power company's ROW if they had trees tall enough to hit transmission lines.

Normally it's a yes. But there's a bit of a difference between billing a few thousand for an auto accident that takes out a pole, or a thousand bucks for when Harry Homeowner drops a tree onto the power lines on the street...and this sucker. I know the guy (from around town) who cut the tree, and I know he doesn't have the income / cash / insurance to cover the full bill for this. CL&P had their local linemen out re-routing power around to come in from other directions, High Line crews coming in on O/T, Volunteer fire companies & State Troopers where setup at the worst of the signal lights that were out in the area (because NO ONE seems to understand that a signal light that is out IS A FOUR WAY STOP. Sorry for shouting, it's a major pet peeve.)

We were busting his chops they'd just put an extra $100 on his monthly electric bill...for the rest of his life.

 

[LumberjkChamp]

Do you suppose he should have just kept running away from the tree? You know, when it came back on him and he ran away maybe he should have just gotten the heck out of there.

I've cut around lines. I try to stay away from it but once in a while I find myself around them. I always rig the trees with a line to pull them unless the lean is really in my favor.

I am aquainted with some of the linemen in my area and they say that if you ever hit lines with a tree you are cutting to just leave the scene and call in a power outage. I guess its easier for everyone. I have not and will not do this but this is what they say.

I was out cutting today and always made sure the wind was in my favor. You don't want to mess with it even if there isn't any property at risk.

 

[Tesen]

Is the woodcutter responsible for all the expenses? I have dropped trees along power lines and it give me a miserable feeling in the pit of my stomach to think about things going wrong.

1) Run to house.
2) Hide saws.
3) Get naked with da wife or GF.
4) Wait for a knock on the door from the police.
5) Open door standing in your birthday suit (bathrobe would help also).
6) Look annoyed that you got disturbed "on the job".
7) Look around and curse and comment, "Mother****** the electricity is out, what the hell is going on?"
8) Ask your wife to shout out about 2 minutes, "Get rid of whoever it is! I am still h****".

Or you could be honest... ;-)

Tes

 

[KsWoodsMan]

My town today:

...

Believe those are 138kV lines.

Guy was cutting firewood, had the notch cut (to fell it away from the lines, obviously), wind gust rocked the tree.

When the tree rocked back, tree snapped -- sort of like a barber chair -- and fell in contact with the lines. Fortunately no injuries, helped by the fact the woodcutter had already taken off running when the try started to break.

Knocked out about 5,000 customers with a near total blackout in two towns and impacting another five.

Nice first hand pictures or are they from the scene afterwards ? :hmm3grin2orange: J/K I bet that would suck to be in his shoes right now. Landing it on his truck would have removed deniability and be funny for the rest of us.

 

[woodguy105]

My town today:

Believe those are 138kV lines.

Guy was cutting firewood, had the notch cut (to fell it away from the lines, obviously), wind gust rocked the tree.

When the tree rocked back, tree snapped -- sort of like a barber chair -- and fell in contact with the lines. Fortunately no injuries, helped by the fact the woodcutter had already taken off running when the try started to break.

Knocked out about 5,000 customers with a near total blackout in two towns and impacting another five.

LOL! We we're part of the 5,000 who lost power.

When we heard it was caused by some one cutting the first thing I salid to my wife was " that guy doing the cutting is screwed!" I guess the power co. isn't to happy about that.

 

[clearance]

Sure does look like a twin 138kv line. That guy is real lucky he wasn't killed. He must have made a fast get away because the voltage probably travelled some distance from the stump.

 

[mga]

friend of mine decided to drop a huge tree near his rental property.

i assumed he knew what he was doing, since he brags about cutting and burning so much. so, i watched as he dropped a large limb onto power lines to the house, as well as the phone lines. they all fell with the limb....lol

called the power company....on a sunday. the bill sent to him later for the repairs was $750. he wasn't too happy about that.

fortunately for him, i was able to repair the phone lines.

always double check and use caution around power lines. they're expensive to fix.

 

[clearance]

friend of mine decided to drop a huge tree near his rental property.

i assumed he knew what he was doing, since he brags about cutting and burning so much. so, i watched as he dropped a large limb onto power lines to the house, as well as the phone lines. they all fell with the limb....lol

called the power company....on a sunday. the bill sent to him later for the repairs was $750. he wasn't too happy about that.

fortunately for him, i was able to repair the phone lines.

always double check and use caution around power lines. they're expensive to fix.

Don't do it if you are not specifically trained and experienced. The money ain't why. Money don't matter when you are barbecued.

 

[Brian VT]

The power co. here, CVPS, has been pleading "stay away" on the radio because they've had so many people dropping trees on the lines this year.