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re: Wildfire Cause Discovered - Electrocuted Birds Bursting into Flames
Posted on 9/6/24 at 5:44 pm to pussywillows
Posted on 9/6/24 at 5:44 pm to pussywillows
There are some videos out there catching birds getting electrocuted and starting fires. It is a known cause, but isn't a major one.
1
Posted on 9/6/24 at 6:18 pm to LegendInMyMind
Talked to a power company lineman years ago. He said he saw a squirrel jump across high power lines at a substation once and it caused an arc. He said nothing was left except a smell.
Posted on 9/6/24 at 8:11 pm to Shexter
It’s always the damned birds!
When I was at LaTech in the middle 80’s I lived in both the dorms next to the railroad tracks: Neilsen and Caruthers. To smoke weed we would hang out at the edge of the gravel for the train tracks along the tree line.
One night a few of us were enjoying a smoke and a sleeping bird fell out of a tree right next to my right foot. The fall woke it up and I immediately recognized the sound of the rustling leaves it made as being the same sound one hears in the woods at night that is so spooky. It’s spooky because one hears the noise from random directions and at random times. It’s simply multiple birds falling out of multiple trees and attempting to fly back up to “bed”.
When I was at LaTech in the middle 80’s I lived in both the dorms next to the railroad tracks: Neilsen and Caruthers. To smoke weed we would hang out at the edge of the gravel for the train tracks along the tree line.
One night a few of us were enjoying a smoke and a sleeping bird fell out of a tree right next to my right foot. The fall woke it up and I immediately recognized the sound of the rustling leaves it made as being the same sound one hears in the woods at night that is so spooky. It’s spooky because one hears the noise from random directions and at random times. It’s simply multiple birds falling out of multiple trees and attempting to fly back up to “bed”.
Posted on 9/6/24 at 9:55 pm to LSUBFA83
quote:
So it's the snake's fault. Not surprised.
Don't know if a pun was attempted here but well done.
The reason a bird sitting on one single cable by itself doesn't combust/arc is because it is not completing a circuit. But if that bird extends to another cable of a different phase (or a ground cable), it causes a phase-to-phase (or phase-to-ground) fault that essentially vaporizes the bird depending on the voltage.
High voltage transmission and distribution lines are spaced based on their voltage level. If you pay attention to the insulators on power lines you can approximate the voltage level by how long they are. These long boys are high voltage (probably 230kV):
These smaller ones are distribution voltage at a lower level (maybe around 34.5kV or 13.8kV):
So if a bird is carrying something, like a snake or worm that can extend between two different cables (of different phases or a ground), that's when the chances of a fault increase. And these faults are more likely on distribution lines since their cables are closer together at lower voltages. Even if a circuit breaker or fuse trips the circuit almost instantaneously, if the weather is dry enough the bird will catch fire and can light up dry tinder pretty quickly.
This is all my online, maybe semi-professional, opinion.
EDIT:
quote:
Talked to a power company lineman years ago. He said he saw a squirrel jump across high power lines at a substation once and it caused an arc. He said nothing was left except a smell.
A few years back, a plant in this area had a transformer fire from a racoon jumping between uninsulated bus bars in an old area of the plant. Protective equipment should have prevented the fire but they can still fail unfortunately. That's when things light up like a Christmas tree.
This post was edited on 9/6/24 at 10:01 pm
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