What happens when lightning hits a power pole ??
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- Опубліковано 21 жов 2024
- Hey Everyone!
Getting back to work after 2 weeks off has been insane! I've never seen so many car accidents, copper thefts and torrential downpours! 😨 All part of Being a Lineman though! 😁🤘.
In this video, I wanted to show you guys how much damage was caused by a lightning strike we responded to a couple weeks ago. Usually lighting just pops a couple fuses or maybe cooks a transformer... but this one was pretty wild! I can only imagine the lightshow when it hit! A great reminder to look beyond what's right in front of you when arriving to a trouble call. 🌩🌩
-Be safe out there guys and girls!
😁🍻 Cheers!
** These video's are NOT intended for training or D.I.Y. Only properly trained and authorized personal are allowed to work on this equipment. Always adhere to work methods and procedures particular to the company you are working for. **
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➡ / bobsdecline
Music courtesy of:
"All good in the wood" by Audionautix
UA-cam audio
#Bobsdecline, #Beingalineman, #Lineman
Hope you all are having a great summer so far!🌊🌞⛱
Usually lighting just pops a couple fuses or maybe cooks a transformer... but this one was pretty wild! I can only imagine the lightshow when it hit!
Be safe out there Everyone! 👊🥂
This video done by Puget Sound Energy is a great safety video for people who are in a crash involving a utility pole ua-cam.com/video/fLVzvMTgGDY/v-deo.html
love the content.... even though i have a huge fear of electricity and getting fried lol where i live there's a bottom powerline and transformer completely cover by vines and is pulling down the wire a good foot close to a fence. i saw some arcs from on the fence when it rains. i called about it twice but no one came out. should i be very worried about it?
I have seen first hand a few lightning strike damage from the consumer side. In a word Messy and yes it’s true on the consumer side. Service people need to look beyond the immediate visible to see the big picture. CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ABOUT GETTING IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIE NOT ABOUT BEING DONE QUICK. “POWER TO THTE PEOPLE. ANd safety is no accident. My best to you pal. Be safe.
I have a video of a walking track you might like I will send it after I mute some of the audio and as usual great work
Found this channel several weeks ago, completely hooked now. I was employed by the major utility serving central Maryland for 15 years. Now I’m a Class-A Lineman for the state covering the substations and wire for our light rail train system. This is a DC system, so it took some time to adapt to that after working AC for 15-years. I love the content and can’t applaud you enough for always putting safety first. I’m the same way, it’s good to return home to the family the same way you left. Stay safe bud and keep the content coming 👊👊👊
I'm glad more people like HVACR Videos exist with the whole "Big Picture Diagnosis" philosophy. Dont stop at the initial issue, look for more. Thank you.
Another HVACR viewer here? Epic!
Love his videos!
Me too
Me too
He has great vids as well…
Those dangling bits are so easy to miss.
Always great knowing that your crew work safe. There is no redos with 12k.
To bad you can't use a charged capacitor bank against copper thieves.
Gun works really good, just make sure that dead people can’t talk, and you don’t have to feed them! PS if they don’t have a weapon make sure to provide one.
Not easy to miss when they're looked for!
@@jovetj
You must have been born with eagle eyes. The rest of us can miss something because branches , snow of some other crap.
@@assassinlexx1993 Yes, I've always had great eyesight! Everything else... meh.
Though, my point was driving past it you wouldn't notice, but since he was actively looking for problems, he spotted it easily.
As a first responder...awesome. Thanks for sharing this information.. and as far as I'm concerned you folks are first responders just the same as us. Be safe! ( a paramedic in New Jersey).
God bless all the power system workers all over the world not to mention you and your coworkers. You are truly some of the finest of the finest first responders! This is a terrific channel and I've learned so much and thanks to you too and the goodness of folks like you who pass on your professional experience, all of us benefit.
Your channel is awesome. One of your videos helped me diagnose a bad neutral at my moms house. A wall socket caught on fire and her house almost burned down. The power company showed up and tried to say it wasn’t a problem on there side but I remembered one of your videos when you were troubleshooting. when there was a load in the house the voltage on one leg would go way up and way down on the other. I was able to call back the power company and tell them it was a bad neutral and the next tech who came back fixed it. Im an hvac tech so i was able to use you video and my knowledge of electricity to get it fixed. Thanks man.
From the law enforcement side, thank you for the work that you do!
God bless all your crews for all do! Having been on rural fire Departments for over 30 years we have had to deal with the local power company's many times waiting for someone to show up to shut off the power off so we can fight the fire safely. I've mentioned many times it should be automatic if the person first on scene says It's fully involved they need to contact the the power company, instead they wait until the chef calls for it, by then it's an hour wait for someone to show up to cut the power.
I agree! We get called now right away. It's resulted in only 2 or 3 bogus calls. A very small price to pay for having a safer environment for all who are involved
Wait the firemen where y'all are at don't just shut the main breaker or pull the meter? That's what they do round here.
I’ve seen first hand what damage lightning can do. I grew up on a farm in Virginia. One summer lightning hit a house a mile up the road from the farm. It traveled down the phone lines and wiped out my parents satellite decoder. Blew out the surge suppressor on a modem in my room. Fried another phone line suppressor in a workshop on the property. And trashed 3 phones. Lucky for me the suppressor in my room gave it all and saved the modem but it was toast. Best $50 I had spent. Costed my parents $300 for new decoder.
For fun I opened the dead suppressor to just see what happed. The thing literally look like someone took a blowtorch to the inside of it.
As for the house that was struck it blew the chimney off of it.
*Cost* "Costed" is not a word.
Doesn't even sound like it was any kind of direct
Thats some very... direct tv.
We just energized a very large pad mount after replacing the arrestors. It was kind of hard to tell if the entire thing jumped (28000 pounds) or what. The arrestors obviously didn't save it. That was a long, and very hot week. Mining cable and secondary everywhere.
Crazy amount of damage. Hard to believe humans occasionally survive lightning strikes.
Indirect strikes, direct strikes are always fatal.
@@Doom2pro That's very much a myth
@@Doom2pro There have been folks survive direct hits. They're not in good shape afterwards.
There's even that one guy that survived MULTIPLE hits in his life...but that's some freak level badluck and Goodluck all roled into on there!
@@pennsyltuckyreb9800 Roy Cleveland Sullivan (February 7, 1912 - September 28, 1983) was an American park ranger in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Between 1942 and 1977, Sullivan was hit by lightning on seven occasions, surviving all of them. For this reason, he gained the nicknames "Human Lightning Conductor" and "Human Lightning Rod". Sullivan is recognized by Guinness World Records as the person struck by lightning more recorded times than any other human being
@@Doom2pro Only 5 - 10 % of direct strikes are fatal ... You been watching too many movies .
Fistbump from Metro Detroit. A week ago, storms came through, and knocked out power to over 700k customers. Crews are still restoring power. God bless you guys and stay safe.
It's crazy how sporadic lightning damage can be. We've had some of our telecom switching offices hit with lightning. (GPS antennas make good lightning rods!) and the amount of random equipment failures inside the building is pretty wild.
Do you guys have lightning arrestors on the coaxes that lead to the GPS antennas? I wonder if there are lightning arrestors for VHF and up. I know they have them for HF shortwave antennas as well as MW antennas.
@@letitrotfuckit Not sure to be honest. If there was not any then I bet there are now! But when it's a direct hit I guess it's very hard to protect from that. They ended up putting an actual lightning rod on the building after the incident. Now we have a small cell tower so it's more likely to hit the structure now than the equipment.
@@redsquirrelftw I see, yeah that works. Sucks I can't do the same thing. I have my fm broadcast antenna in a tree and it seems to have done fine but I wonder if there are anyways to protect it from lightning. In my situation a direct is fatal and will set the whole place on fire. There was actually a hurricane yesterday and it survived, so idk.
@@letitrotfuckit Y'all are way ahead of me in terms of knowledge, but out of curiosity, would it be feasible to have some kind of automatic disconnect if there's a lightning strike detected nearby?
I know there's lightning detecting equipment that exists. Hook that up to a relay that disconnects the antennas for an hour or so. 🤔
@@ashtentheplatypus Possible! There are multiple ways you could do that. The most practical way is to get a Raspberry PI in your shack which checks the lightning map website (so you would have a program) and it will pin out to a transistor that would open and close a relay in an antenna switching box, so it would disconnect both gnd and positive in case of an emergency and also cut the power to the transmitter before turning off the antenna connection.
Stay Safe Brother! From a fellow serviceman here in central Alberta
🤝👊
Lighting strikes can be catastrophic. We can't imagine the energy unchained in a fraction of a second. Thank you to lineman everywhere who have to repair the aftermath so we all can have power. Am interested to see the process of restoring lines after catastrophic outages like icestorms or sever thunderstorms. Thanks
Fistbump to you, dude. Stay safe!
Another great video. Good looking pup. Waiting for more! 👊 this time from Amana RV PARK AMANA IOWA.
That must have been an impressive amount of power in that strike to do all of that. Thank you for the videos. 🖖⚡
Lightning packs a punch like the surface of the sun. So, yeah.
Nice to see some people slowing down for you.
I agree! It seems to be getting better as of late, that's why I didn't edit that out💯
Nice and full of detail info very good and I love the scenic view from up on the pole Canada really nice and clean. Hoping to visit one day keep the video's coming..love it I'm from 🇯🇲
Like your channel! Currently a journeyman electrician...looking to become an apprentice lineman. I've found your channel insightful in regards to linework! Thanks for your uploads!
I've seen lightning blow apart a tree and rain down bits of wood several houses away. It's wicked stuff.
I've had two pine trees taken out, the sap turns to vapor and they literally explode. Didn't leave any pieces larger than 3 or 4 feet.
Brilliant Bob . Lighting strikes sure do a lot of damage 👍👍👍
Wow! That sure did a number there eh? Thanks for sharing that with us bud, really appreciate it!. Hope all is well with the family, new home and job! God bless you and yours!
Another great video Aaron! Enjoy the lake. Thanks for producing these. 👊👊
Like the content, I'm a fire fighter on a small Dept in SK and deal with SaskPower on occasion. Pole Lightning strikes, Birds that cause pole fires after they drop to the ground, Grass fires that impact power, and MVA's.
Great video. Those trouble calls can be bad. Sometimes it takes a while to get the big picture. 👍🤜
Thank you. Fist bump for sure. Be safe.
Aaron! That’s a super nice house you got there! You deserve it with all the hours you work! 👍
You da man! Nothing like being first on scene to see the damage before the help shows up. That was some lightening strike from that far away? I never saw a polymer cutout break like that? I thought it might have been an old Chance cutout that was broken like that from the ground? 2 pots, a pole, arm, arrestor & cutout. You did the pole set & shift in 2-1/2 hours with an apprentice? You’ve got great apprentices! 👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻
Dang that looks like a fun time. Stay safe man 👊
It is interesting to see enjoy seeing your dog check you out
I've had a few requests! I heard him walking around upstairs when I was talking to the camera and figured a good time to get a shot!
Yep, I think I heard him say, "how's it goin', eh?" when he realized you were filming. Beautiful friend you have there!
The weather has been crazy this summer. Noticing all the smoke in the sky too.
The power of lightning is nothing short of amazing
The Struggle is real ! I feel you editing pains. Stay Safe 👊
The hardware store just switched brands. And now they carry a full line of Milwaukee. So guess what I got for the sawzall. A tree/bush pruning blade. 5tpi. Its sharp check it out. Interesting video. Do an any of your power lines follow a rail road right off way?
Hi there glad to see more of Milwaukee tools available to lineman
Battery tools are way better then. Hydraulics,
A great tool is the Milwaukee 44 kv tool for changing insulators or relocating the 44
Kinda like an all angle cog , you put socket on end of tool which is above 6ft insulatated tool
Rated for 100kv /ft and at the other end you put your battery drill and makes it very quick and quick simple to change insulators , no more working with mulitiple sticks.
Also the Battery chain saw works awesome (small one )even with class 2 gloves
Great channel, thanks for sharing the info. From Calgary, Alberta.
Aaron your channel is amazing learned so much
Great video on the next one can you leave the go pro going on replacing the pole and transformers?
I agree would be cool too see the damage and the complete fix but thanks for your vids but vans are asking lol 😆
Great video, thanks, stay safe, and God bless you.
Serious amount of damage there, but serious energy too!
Greetings from Ct in the USA. I'm sure this what the crews are busy with today, after last night's storm came through New England. Lots of lightning strikes, broken poles, and downed limbs around town. Also school closures due to trees / wires down and flooding of roads.
Pretty wild seeing how the top of that pole was split. Years ago, we were heading in to work and saw a lightning strike on a power line. Flash, cloud of smoke and sparks and the span of wire just disappeared.
While installing a temporary primary shoofly in steady rain near Yakima, Washington, we had just finished and were back in the truck when lightning struck the pole Jay had been on. The pole struck was only about 6 feet from the truck and was LOUD!!! That was the only lightning strike of the day and it took out 16 overhead transformers and a 12.5/34.5 kv step up bank. Jay said it was God telling him not to climb, any more.
The joy I feel seeing your name in my feed 😮💨
One time I was standing next to a huge poplar tree when Lightning hit it and snaped it off 15 feet up and it fell and took out my shed.
LOVE your pup! So cute 😍!
you make some of the most interesting videos out here
I'm not from the USA but I have some questions about the lines.
2:38 Would I be correct in assuming the 3 lines are phase 1,2,3 at about 110 Volts (120 degrees out of phase) and the slightly lower line is the ground / earth ?
Or are those 3 lines a higher voltage which pull power off one of the phases which then go to the transformer (cylinder type thing) which then feed across as single phases to the houses ?
Over here we sometimes have 11 Kv lines running above then lower down are the 240 volt 3 phase (potential of 440 ? volts) then further down is cable for internet / cable tv / telephone lines. Typically the 11Kv isn't there though. And here most houses get just 1 phase as its 240 volts @ 50 hertz
Mix that with the occasional HRC fuse, a few posts grounded , etc and you're done.
Ps The ground is usually closest to the footpath / sidewalk and is at the same level as the active wires.
Bob, nice job. Please be safe out there. Watch out for speeders. Blessings. Luis
Lightning hit a tree 2 houses down from me. It was loud.
I’ve also seen a pole with exploded lightning arrestors
Network maintenance cable guy here, have you ever dealt with RFI-- PLI ? There was a major power outage, and come to find out the PWR Co had a tree fall on a line and caused a dead short at their substation. short version, we have several RFI's in a condensed area, the Lineman said that the lightning arrestor are probably blown generating line noise.
My question is, if the lightening arrestors are bad do they have no affect on the power feeding your customers? I'm guessing they're just basically a fuse right? Could you explain them.
Be safe man, Thanks for the video
In our area all 10,000 volt lines have been changed to underground. There is a lot of forest here where the lines go through. Trees were uprooted in a storm, which led to power failures. Now the lines in the established forest paths are protected. Where the streets were renewed, the power connection was also laid underground, but not all. The transformers are large boxes that stand on different street corners. 4 or 5 in our village. One is hidden in a garage, one is still a small tower where the lines used to be at the top. There are no longer any transformers on masts.
Love the vids bud. You and AvE should have a beer I think he is out your way.
Canada is HUGE!
another great vid. cant wait for the next
I knew someone who had in their private museum a tree that had taken a direct lightning hit... the trunk etc. remained fully intact, but every square inch of bark was blown off or hanging in strips from the trunk and branches!
All of those vehicle accidents, geez. Those people did not have a good day. 😥
Dude, comm lineman here, love you're videos
Thanks man! 🤝🍻
Astonishing. Crazy crazy crazy.
Stay safe sir!!
Great insight. Really enjoy your vids
A few years ago, I was traveling past a transformer that was once mounted up on the power pole it was straddling. Somehow the transformer dropped to the base of the power pole and was emitting an electric blue colored very bright blinding flash.
Quickly realizing that this blue flashing light resembled the identical blue arc of an welders torch, I quickly looked the other way.
So many others however stopped to take a quick look and sometimes a photo.
I can't help but wonder; how's the headaches doing.... some 15 year's later?
About 15 years ago thieves drove around my town and stole the most easily accessible six feet of lightning arrester ground wire (un-insulated copper) from each utility pole. The utility company will not replace, or repair, the ground wire because thieves would just do it again. I am assuming that there was good reason to install those ground wires many decades ago, so what problems can now occur during a lightning storm ?
Man those Milwaukee torch blades are the ish! Cut thru stainless like it was butter w my little M12. Haven't tried it on my beef cake corded yet but I'm sure it will be insane.
Watching this from across the pond. (Scandinavia)
Why are electricity lines not buried in the ground like here? Is it not cost effective? Not to mention all those wires hanging everywhere is not exactly pleasing to look at😉
I appreciate your videos. Stay safe man!
Cute puppy. Is he the boss of the house.
How nice of you guys to re-hang the other utilities cable. Around here, they would have sawed that pole just above toe telephone or cable line, set a new pole a couple feet away and the other utility would have had to come out later and move their cable to the new pole.
They actually do that here also, and I’ve got two poles next to my driveway and the one only has phone lines on it. Been around five years now, frontier phone co is getting really bad about fixing things right.
That's crazy how lightning can do that kind of damage for that kind of distance
It can go kilometers. It's electricity and wires are designed to carry electricity.
Nice job 👊🏻😎
How do linemen determine if a line is energized?
Those crossarms don't look as big up close as I would expect. What are their dimensions?
12kv meets 7200v at the normal open junction? Wouldn't the voltage need to be about the same so the downstream transformers get the right input voltage?
We refer to the line voltage as 12.4kv. (phase to phase) The voltage on one phase to ground is approx. 7.2kv. totally my bad, as I mentioned 7.2 when looking at the dangling wire without being more specific. But yes your absolutely right and if the voltage were different that would cause problems.
We also ensure that our phases line up properly at "normal opens". Phasing checks are preformed during initial build or any line changes in order to parallel feeds while switching. This will allow us to remove lines/equipment from service for maintenance with a power interruption to any customers
@@Bobsdecline that makes sense - thanks for the description. Love the videos!!
You should consider yourself a first responder as well buddy… I didn’t know why they classify us as FIRST RESPONDERS CATEGORY.. great job and be safe
Great video. Thank you
What are your favourite pair of climbing boots? Going to school in a few weeks and looking for the best boots.
Royer is my fav, I’ve tried plenty, always go back to the royers
Your videos are some of the most interesting I've watched. Interested to know what kind of flashlights you guys use and are they available to the public
Streamlight, Lite box. They're an excellent light! Available to the public
how often do people crash thru poles anyway? We had one happen near my work took out 2 poles completely somehow in a 25mph school zone...would not have expected that to happen!
For transmission poles carrying high voltages, wouldn't it make better sense to use concrete/steel poles, equipped with lightning rods further up higher?
Any chance of seeing what a lightning strike does to the inside of a transformer. Seen them explode when we get to occasional bad storm here in Shreveport La. but what does it acutally do when it hits?
How does it feel to finally have the braces 😁 off looks good thanks for sharing
What are the lights you are using when doing night tickets like headlamps and spot light
If you’re lucky the power line fuse blows before the destructively high transient voltage makes it to the transformer.
Have a Good time at the lake. Hey From Oklahoma !!
It goes pop !!
I know what lightning can do to a tree. We were gone the night a bolt struck our 60 foot Linden tree. The moisture in the tree was super heated and the resulting steam blew the bark off it and sent pieces into our house and halfway down the block. We lost two TV's. So glad we were gone. We most certainly would have died from fright!
Whatd you catch at the lake is the question on my mind lol
We have a long driveway so utility primary runs most of the way to our transformer then underground to the house. In the early 1990s we took multiple lighting hits, one directly on the transformer in the driveway. It exploded the arrester, I was picking pieces of porcelain out of our lawn months afterword. Surprisingly the transformer itself survived. It took out most of our electronics, resulting in fun time with the insurance adjuster. I have great respect for lightning.
During that time I was a volunteer EMT in town. Learned to stay clear of downed wires until the utility crew deemed the area safe. Luckily we never had an incident where someone got electrocuted getting out of a vehicle or a first responder.
Hi Tom,
I know it was a long time ago that you had that claim with the insurance company. You can get surge protection for your house. Speak to an electrician for details?
As for the transformer in your driveway? That was thirty years ago. However if the arrestor wasn’t replaced? The next lightening strike will go into your house. The power company has replacement arrestors that can be retrofitted to older transformers. I know because we do that from time to time where I work. Usually we have to take a temporary outage on the transformer to do the job.
@@johnclyne6350 Thanks for your comment. The utility replaced the arrester right a way, it was not integral to the transformer. We have two metered services, main and second one for electric water heater. I've installed whole house sure protectors on both services. We recently installed dual minisplit heat pumps so I added surge protectors to both disconnects. We also have point of use protector at most plug in electronic devices.
We have a submersible well pump, while the strike did not damage the pump itself it took out the control box. I now keep a spare on hand. Lastly we have an outdoor TV antenna. At the time we built the house (1982) it was bonded to the plumbing system with an aluminum conductor, forget the gauge, probably 10 AWG. I have since added a grounding electrode at the antenna because it is the opposite side of the building from the utility grounding electrode and used 6AWG copper to bond the antenna to the plumbing system.
Even with this level of protection a similar strike today would probably be more costly as we have a lot more electronics then back in early 1990s.
@@tomschmidt381 Glad to hear everything is bonded at your house. Also that you sought out professionals in advance of another problem down the road. An outdoor antenna would need it’s own ground grid. You wouldn’t want that connected to your house ground. The further away the better.
Cool vid. Im a flagger in NM
Caught your comment on the copper thieves and substation it amazes me how brave they are getting to steal copper these days. How often are they deadly theft attempts?
The answer I'm supposed to give is - ALL thefts attempts can be deadly. But I know what your asking... In the last 2 months I've arrive to 3 in which the individual was very lucky they weren't killed. One of which left behind melted copper and brass as a result the extreme heat from the arc as they cut the wire. There was also two other calls that resulted in fairly serious pole fires.
Years ago,a copper thief in my area got his arms blown off ! 7200 volts
Not brave but stupid!
Parabéns pelo conteúdo estou aqui em São Paulo e também temos vários defeitos ocasionados por descargas atmosféricas e postes abalroados por veículos um forte abraço a todos que atua na rede de distribuição aérea de energia aqui no Brasil e tudo mais complicado.
Nice video
Thanks
Can’t wait for the next one
We had a storm about a month ago that blew over 2 or so miles of lines going along highway 60 in arizona between Florence junction and apache junction.
Keep up the good work 🤜
I’m not power yet still cable trash work safe and go home to your family I love watching you videos man have a good time at the lake
On the main highway near Dunedoo Australia, a few hundred meters away I saw lightning hit a power line...........a perfect blue orb a few meters in diameter appeared for a split second..........very cool. one of the trucks that belonged to my father was in outback Australia when lightning hit the aluminum 'bullbar' on the front of the truck........the driver got a bad case of welders flash and had to wear sunglasses for months.
Fist bump, stay safe out there!
👊 be Safe my Friend.
Hello, why don't you change the supports to reinforced concrete or iron? I see a lot of wooden supports here. In Russia, in the Kirov Region and in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, I already see very few wooden supports. Gradually, everything is being changed to reinforced concrete.
Not worth the money for the service life you get out of them. That amd motor vehicle accidents involving utility poles are very common and wood will break where concrete won't.
Where the lines at the normally open out of phase? If so lighting might have started the arc and boom some voltage possibly above 7200 would have passed some big time current!!!
I was looking at the truck to see if you were Hydro one (almost all of Ontario’s power) but it’s not. The reason being is I’m going to become a lineman for hydro one and wanted to ask for tips on how you have your own truck and only you use it