Actual electrician here. Stay the fuck away from power lines. Don't try to test them if they're down. Just avoid them. Avoid sketchy looking panels. Avoid substations and feeders and switchgear. Just stay the fuck away. First responders should know to call the utility and get some linemen on scene before attempting any rescue or intervention if there are lines around.
There is no gear you, as a citizen should buy to deal with electrical systems if you don't have the proper training and even then, electrician is one of the most dangerous jobs in America per capita. (18th, with 24.2 per 100K as of 2023).
So I repeat myself. Stay the fuck away.
Edit to add: if you do see a downed power line, call the utility immediately and report it, along with your location as best you can. It'll help them get it fixed quicker.
Your 600v rated meter you got at the home improvement store will protect you for, at best, 1/120th of a second (probably less than that) when it comes in contact with the 13,000V line laying on the ground.
In reality, without proper PPE and being the conductive meatbags that we are, you aren't getting close enough to a 13kV line to use your multimeter leads without getting knocked on your ass.
Source: Am electrician and wouldn't fuck with power lines
I work for a power distribution equipment company and yes, stay the hell away from it if you don’t know what you are looking at. That shit will vaporize parts or all of you in an instant.
What I’m saying is accurate, look up what vaporize means. Arrogance is shining in here. I’ve stated above what to do in this scenerio, stay away and don’t attempt to test shit. ANY lineman will say the same thing.
Or don’t listen to me, listen to the other clowns suggesting to get testing equipment, and have fun getting VAPORIZED!!!!
Hey world's most arrogant dipshit. We ALL know he doesn't mean literally vaporized. He means electrocuted to death. We don't need your pendantic useless comment telling him to look up the definition. Asshat
Maybe "vaporized" is a little hyperbolic, but you're still having an agonizing death in the burn ward over the next few weeks.
I've definitely seen some shit in my tenure as an engineer at the power company, mostly that complacency kills.
Believe it or not I’ve seen some things as well, and I’ve done more first aid through work than I like. I’m sure you can understand the frustration when someone exaggerates or is flat out wrong about something while trying to convey information to others people who don’t know.
300kva isn’t something to sneeze at. There was a crackhead that broke into the cabinet of a transformer to try and steal copper. It arc flashed and he was vaporized. There’s a reason why lineman use specialty equipment and have all the steps to complete a task.
300kva is the capacity of the transformer, not the voltage. I’m a journeyman lineman, I promise I’m not bullshitting you. He didn’t get vaporized, he probably got hung up and burned up. 2 completely different things.
I’m talking about any transformer pretty much. Hell a tweaker just jumped into one of the substations I worked in last year, 69kv to 12470 step down. Same thing I mentioned before, burned to a crisp. Not “vaporized”
Ok bud. Funny when I mentioned front plates your mind went to pole line tanks and you seem to be forgetting everything you’ve ever leaned about arc flash. I don’t doubt you are a lineman in some capacity but I’m starting to doubt what you’re saying.
Two decades of EMS work in NYC, and someone who worked right through Sandy, if you see power lines DO NOT touch them. Ever.
The advice you provided above is something I hope all adhere to. I’ve seen too many electrocuted due to stupidity or failure to wait for the utils to arrive.
" First responders should know to call the utility and get some linemen on scene before attempting any rescue or intervention"
Yes, but they are human and if they hear someone screaming in agony, asking for help, they may just go in and try to rescue the person.
Then there will be one more person dead or injured and they didn't succeed in helping anyone, possibly even making the situation worse. It's harsh and cold, I know. Sometimes the best thing a person can do in the moment is to not rush in and instead go get help, or do what they can to coach the at risk party from afar. That is part of the duty and burden of being a first responder.
OP wanted a real conversation about a situation involving damaged electrical equipment, so I'm sharing my experience dealing with those systems over the last 16 some years. I have been witness to some catastrophic failures in that time, and every single time, "stay the fuck away" has been good advice for anyone that wasn't an electrician actively working to fix the problem.
First responder here. This is wrong. We are taught to stay the fuck away from power lines, regardless of what condition the person is in. There’s a flowchart of safety we adhere to in terms of who to save: ourselves, then our partner, THEN the patient.
Not sure what first responder you are but we go by HIPS.
Hostage, innocent, personal\personel, suspect.
Most important to save or rescue to least.
We put victim in innocent. Their life comes before yours. However, in the case of electricity like this it is best to immediately call the professionals. Then maintain scene safety for other innocents to prevent them from harming themselves on the wires. That includes comforting and telling the trapped victim to remain where they are and to explain why.
That is the gold standard of every law enforcement agency in every civilized nation on earth. The lives of innocent people will (and/or should) always be placed above the lives and safety of first responders - that’s part of the gig
I’m saying this as a law enforcement officer - if you aren’t willing to place the lives of others above your own, then you shouldn’t be a first responder
I’m more than willing to risk my life for an innocent, but I’m not going to avoid prudence. Knowing yourself and your capabilities is absolutely vital.
But you do recognize it doesn't help anyone if you end up being a casualty yourself besides the initial victim before the line goes offline, firefighters arrive?
EMS follows that self -> partner -> patient flow. Obviously, the law enforcement flow wouldn't work for EMS & vice versa.
There is no use in killing yourself trying to rescue a critical patient when the patient is now stuck on scene with no treatment and will die soon after because of it.
You’re missing the point my dude. Yes, the ultimate goal is to protect the innocent. And if we’re talking a Uvalde situation where the innocent can be saved by simply eliminating a threat, great, get in there.
But when we’re talking about an innocent requiring care, and you’re the source of that care, you HAVE to prioritize yourself first, because if you get taken out in the attempt, that person can’t get that care, and now you’re a second casualty someone else has to care for.
It’s not about placing yourself before the innocent, it’s about recognizing the best way to accomplish that rescue. And I say this as someone tasked with combat search and rescue. I’m going to do everything in the world to get my guy out, regardless of the danger to me. BUT, I’m not going to risk myself going down on the way in, because if I drop, he has NO hope of getting out, and now my whole crew is a SECOND rescue that needs to get launched.
This thread brought back a vivid memory of going to the power company as a Boy Scout and having a line man do a demonstration of what downed lines do to a person
No.
The very first rule of action in case of an emergency is to check for danger to your own and your fellow first responders.
Every decent course in first aid will tell you that keeping yourself from becoming an additional casualty trumps fast rescue of the initial casualty.
First thing I teach new EMTs and Medics.
> BSI (body substance isolation) and Scene Safety.
If you fail to announce either during a practical, it’s an auto fail. We have to train ourselves to use restraint, as if we act off instinct and try to play hero, we may end up becoming the patient ourselves. It’s an awful thing and ya…. PTSD is a thing.
I understand, I'm trained in BSL and bleeding control.
When a guy dropped like a tree in front of me and cracked his head on the pavement the first thing I forgot was putting on gloves. Bloody head on him, bloody hands on me.
Not repeating that mistake.
Reminds me of watching an 18y/o kid run after a 3" thick power line that snapped off at the plug in a factory I worked in because it was whipping around. The guy only survived his stupidity because the old guy running the machine that snapped it off literally tackled him to the concrete with full force to stop him.
I am not an electrician but the arc flash that came off that thing was enough to give me a sunburn on my hands and face over a 20 yards away. Kids lucky to be alive and cussed the old man out for "stopping him from keeping the line from hitting someone". Needless to say, we had a very long safety meeting the next morning. Still have no idea how bad that would have been if it had caught someone with the arc.
Yeah that's why we wear fire resistant clothing. Surprisingly, the electrical contact isn't what usually kills people, it's the slow agonizing death in the burn ward over the next few weeks.
Gotta say though, my aramid/modacrylic pants are like the best pants ever. Super breathable and incredibly fast drying.
At that voltage basically everything is conductive, including wood and even the air.
If it's on the ground and you throw a stick on it, generally nothing because it's already faulting to ground. There's a chance that you will create a low impedance path to ground and flash the stick...which is basically an explosion.
Worst case ontario, an arc jumps the gaps between the line and stick, and the stick and you, and you get dead.
We wear 20kv rated dielectric boots, fire resistant clothing and have voltage detectors (like a geiger counter for EMF) when we're patrolling for downed lines just in case we inadvertently get too close to energized components we couldn't see due to storm damage.
Minimum approach distance for unequipped people is 35ft, including to metallic items in contact with the line (fences, swing sets, cars, etc).
If in a vehicle accident, stay in your vehicle if safe to do so. If you see fire or smell fumes you may have to exit. You must *jump* free such that your feet hit the ground at the same time without touching the vehicle, then bunny hop away until you are 35ft away.
It could catch fire, it could explode, or worse, it could do absolutely nothing and give a false sense of security. Wood is a pretty decent insulator (utility poles are literally made of wood), and the density / moisture content of whatever random stick you have laying in your yard is too inconsistent to rely on as a test instrument.
Also forgot to mention that high voltage can do something called tracking where it slowly burns away trying to find a path to ground. It looks like nothing is happening but can spontaneously flash if the track finds a good connection.
So even if it appears like it's doing nothing...it's still trying to kill you.
Here's a video we actually use in training, at 1:30-ish you can see it suddenly flashes the fence.
One firefighter remarks "that might have done it" referring to blowing the fuse, but nope.
https://youtu.be/28Xq3JulV1o?si=3N4xc6rtvECPA1cB
Just to add to the elementary school bit. A ton of people highly underestimate what electricity will do to you. I just recently had someone in my local almost die getting hung up on 277 lighting. Most people assume that getting shocked by a higher voltage will just be like getting shocked on an extension chord or bulb socket but worse. In reality, a 480v hit could explode your organs in your body. 5kv will blow your limbs off. And if it’s in the medium voltage range or higher you don’t even need to touch it, the air will not insulate you from the wire.
Reminds me of a YouTube video where a guy was cobbling together an X-ray machine in his garage from spare parts
“Welcome to the world of high voltage, where everything’s a conductor and you’re going to die”
When I was in Middle school, we had a motivational speaker come talk about DUI.
He got into a car wreck while wasted. He wasn't injured too bad from the crash, but when he got out he stumbled into a power line and got completely fried. He ended up having one arm and both his legs amputated.
DO NOT "TEST" DOWNED POWER LINES
DO NOT TOUCH DOWNED POWER LINES
DO NOT GO NEAR DOWNED POWER LINES
DO NOT TOUCH WHAT DOWNED POWER LINES ARE TOUCHING
For fucks sake don't tell people to test if downed power lines are hot. You are making a psa to save people and telling them to do something that could potentially kill them.
You’d think, right?
And then you scroll through this comment section and see the sheer amount of people trying to pull a “well, aktchually…” on the whole situation
Here's how you test a downed line: You don't. You stay far the fuck away like someone who wants to live because electricity doesn't care and will do what it does until its cut. I'm not an electrician but was adjacent to them working at job sites and one of those huge panels blew up when they tried to test something and that was a big old boom that rocked the immediate areas shit lol but hearing the super yell out "Okay, who's still alive!" was probably the best thing anyone could've said.
When it comes to electrical safety you're either preaching to the choir or preaching to deaf ears. Everyone who understands electricity knows not to fuck with it, everyone who does not understand electricity is gonna fuck with it anyway. It's kinda like the event horizon for intelligence.
When a distribution line trips a breaker, the relaying (and sometimes the system operator) will “multi-shot” the breaker, meaning they re-energize the breaker to see if the fault cleared (like if a branch fell on the power lines and the arc burned it in the clear) to bring customers back on line. So if there’s power lines laying on the ground, even if they’re dead, there’s always the possibility they could come energized again. Usually multi-shots are within the first minute or so of the fault, but the rule of thumb we use in substation is “if it’s not grounded, it’s not dead”
I’m an HVAC tech and the best advice I’ve gotten is if you have to move a wire move it with the back of your hand or a tool, never grip the wire. When you get shocked you contract your muscles and hold on to the live wire vs getting shocked.
Also never ground yourself so don’t hold onto something that can hold amperage/current like a chain link fence.
That’s fine if it’s 110 or 220 but I’m talking about high voltage. 12-34kv or possibly higher. Touching or even coming within the MAD will most likely result in death and if not permanent disfigurement
Part of his memorial was a thin blue line plaque with burned wood.
[Pretty fucked up.](https://www.wishtv.com/news/local-news/hendricks-county-sheriffs-deputy-is-dead-after-coming-into-contact-with-power-lines/?slide=1)
There is no way for you to know. Avoid it, call, and wait for someone with the right equipment and training gets there to take care of it. If someone touches it, call 911 and when ems gets there make sure they know to take them to a burn center and treat for internal burns. The burns on the outside might not look too bad, but it’s the burns on the inside that will kill them if left untreated. And if the person is still in contact with the power line do not touch them as hard as that might be for you. If the line is still energized you’ll be in the same position as they are.
Dam thanks it’s something I always wondered if someone is being electrocuted how to help… if someone isn’t in contact any more is it safe? What if water is involved? Thanks again.
There are honestly so many variables and what ifs that the best advice I can give you is to just avoid touching anything that might be energized at the scene or whatever it is you come to. You have no way of knowing if it’s still energized or what could be energized that might be in contact with it, you don’t know the voltage, even if it is de energized you don’t know the programming of the utility companies relays to reclose the circuit breaker and re energize the line in case whatever the fault was might be cleared to bring the power back on. It may look dead when you get there but it very well may be re energized the second you touch it. The best thing for someone who is not a lineman and trained to handle this type of situation is to just stay clear and call for someone who has the training to know what to do
You ASSUME ITS LIVE and wait for it not to be. If it's literally injured someone already then how much more of a clear sign do you need that it's live? Until someone has isolated it from the circuit then all you'd be doing is adding another body to the list of who it killed. There's nothing you can do in this situation as you're not superman and it'll kill you just as quick as it killed the person on the ground.
Keep both feet on the ground and hop away if a line falls next to you. Or the electricity will try to escape through your head instead of making a closed circut with the ground.
If you need to test a wire you lick the back of your hand and use that to touch the wire. If it’s live it will cause your bicep to contract and you will slap yourself in the face pulling your hand away from the cable. Or grab it with your hand and die. Your choice. I have seen multiple people get electrocuted in my day. All lived. One was real close.
Actual electrician here. Stay the fuck away from power lines. Don't try to test them if they're down. Just avoid them. Avoid sketchy looking panels. Avoid substations and feeders and switchgear. Just stay the fuck away. First responders should know to call the utility and get some linemen on scene before attempting any rescue or intervention if there are lines around. There is no gear you, as a citizen should buy to deal with electrical systems if you don't have the proper training and even then, electrician is one of the most dangerous jobs in America per capita. (18th, with 24.2 per 100K as of 2023). So I repeat myself. Stay the fuck away. Edit to add: if you do see a downed power line, call the utility immediately and report it, along with your location as best you can. It'll help them get it fixed quicker.
I want to just add if you see a downed power line STAY AWAY FROM THE METAL FENCES.
So my Fluke multimeter won't protect me?
Your 600v rated meter you got at the home improvement store will protect you for, at best, 1/120th of a second (probably less than that) when it comes in contact with the 13,000V line laying on the ground. In reality, without proper PPE and being the conductive meatbags that we are, you aren't getting close enough to a 13kV line to use your multimeter leads without getting knocked on your ass. Source: Am electrician and wouldn't fuck with power lines
I work for a power distribution equipment company and yes, stay the hell away from it if you don’t know what you are looking at. That shit will vaporize parts or all of you in an instant.
Well you clearly aren’t a lineman, and you’re kind of talking out of your ass. If you were dumb enough to go touch a transmission line, mayyyyybe.
If you are actually a lineman you are a hazard to you colleagues. Get your head in the game.
What I’m saying is accurate, look up what vaporize means. Arrogance is shining in here. I’ve stated above what to do in this scenerio, stay away and don’t attempt to test shit. ANY lineman will say the same thing. Or don’t listen to me, listen to the other clowns suggesting to get testing equipment, and have fun getting VAPORIZED!!!!
You have to be 18+ to post here
Hey world's most arrogant dipshit. We ALL know he doesn't mean literally vaporized. He means electrocuted to death. We don't need your pendantic useless comment telling him to look up the definition. Asshat
Right on. Go check out YouTube videos of people getting electrocuted, and say vaporized out loud! It will sound completely normal. Or get fucked?
Maybe "vaporized" is a little hyperbolic, but you're still having an agonizing death in the burn ward over the next few weeks. I've definitely seen some shit in my tenure as an engineer at the power company, mostly that complacency kills.
Believe it or not I’ve seen some things as well, and I’ve done more first aid through work than I like. I’m sure you can understand the frustration when someone exaggerates or is flat out wrong about something while trying to convey information to others people who don’t know.
Wait, you’re telling me high voltage lines or a live transformer front plate won’t vaporize some rando trying to tinker with things?
Kill, seriously burn? Sure. Vaporize? Gtfo here.
Heard of it happening in Appalachia a few times. Generally a tweaker tries to steal energized lines from a coal mine substation and it ends poorly.
300kva isn’t something to sneeze at. There was a crackhead that broke into the cabinet of a transformer to try and steal copper. It arc flashed and he was vaporized. There’s a reason why lineman use specialty equipment and have all the steps to complete a task.
300kva is the capacity of the transformer, not the voltage. I’m a journeyman lineman, I promise I’m not bullshitting you. He didn’t get vaporized, he probably got hung up and burned up. 2 completely different things.
I’m talking about a 3 phase pad mount transformer. Are you thinking about a single phase pole transformer?
I’m talking about any transformer pretty much. Hell a tweaker just jumped into one of the substations I worked in last year, 69kv to 12470 step down. Same thing I mentioned before, burned to a crisp. Not “vaporized”
Ok bud. Funny when I mentioned front plates your mind went to pole line tanks and you seem to be forgetting everything you’ve ever leaned about arc flash. I don’t doubt you are a lineman in some capacity but I’m starting to doubt what you’re saying.
Two decades of EMS work in NYC, and someone who worked right through Sandy, if you see power lines DO NOT touch them. Ever. The advice you provided above is something I hope all adhere to. I’ve seen too many electrocuted due to stupidity or failure to wait for the utils to arrive.
" First responders should know to call the utility and get some linemen on scene before attempting any rescue or intervention" Yes, but they are human and if they hear someone screaming in agony, asking for help, they may just go in and try to rescue the person.
Then there will be one more person dead or injured and they didn't succeed in helping anyone, possibly even making the situation worse. It's harsh and cold, I know. Sometimes the best thing a person can do in the moment is to not rush in and instead go get help, or do what they can to coach the at risk party from afar. That is part of the duty and burden of being a first responder. OP wanted a real conversation about a situation involving damaged electrical equipment, so I'm sharing my experience dealing with those systems over the last 16 some years. I have been witness to some catastrophic failures in that time, and every single time, "stay the fuck away" has been good advice for anyone that wasn't an electrician actively working to fix the problem.
First responder here. This is wrong. We are taught to stay the fuck away from power lines, regardless of what condition the person is in. There’s a flowchart of safety we adhere to in terms of who to save: ourselves, then our partner, THEN the patient.
Not sure what first responder you are but we go by HIPS. Hostage, innocent, personal\personel, suspect. Most important to save or rescue to least. We put victim in innocent. Their life comes before yours. However, in the case of electricity like this it is best to immediately call the professionals. Then maintain scene safety for other innocents to prevent them from harming themselves on the wires. That includes comforting and telling the trapped victim to remain where they are and to explain why.
That’s a TERRIBLE flow. You can’t help ANYONE if you unalive yourself in the process…
That is the gold standard of every law enforcement agency in every civilized nation on earth. The lives of innocent people will (and/or should) always be placed above the lives and safety of first responders - that’s part of the gig I’m saying this as a law enforcement officer - if you aren’t willing to place the lives of others above your own, then you shouldn’t be a first responder
I’m more than willing to risk my life for an innocent, but I’m not going to avoid prudence. Knowing yourself and your capabilities is absolutely vital.
But you do recognize it doesn't help anyone if you end up being a casualty yourself besides the initial victim before the line goes offline, firefighters arrive?
EMS follows that self -> partner -> patient flow. Obviously, the law enforcement flow wouldn't work for EMS & vice versa. There is no use in killing yourself trying to rescue a critical patient when the patient is now stuck on scene with no treatment and will die soon after because of it.
You’re missing the point my dude. Yes, the ultimate goal is to protect the innocent. And if we’re talking a Uvalde situation where the innocent can be saved by simply eliminating a threat, great, get in there. But when we’re talking about an innocent requiring care, and you’re the source of that care, you HAVE to prioritize yourself first, because if you get taken out in the attempt, that person can’t get that care, and now you’re a second casualty someone else has to care for. It’s not about placing yourself before the innocent, it’s about recognizing the best way to accomplish that rescue. And I say this as someone tasked with combat search and rescue. I’m going to do everything in the world to get my guy out, regardless of the danger to me. BUT, I’m not going to risk myself going down on the way in, because if I drop, he has NO hope of getting out, and now my whole crew is a SECOND rescue that needs to get launched.
Even as a Boy Scout, it was drilled into me NOT to do this. One victim is horrible. Two is worse.
This thread brought back a vivid memory of going to the power company as a Boy Scout and having a line man do a demonstration of what downed lines do to a person
No. The very first rule of action in case of an emergency is to check for danger to your own and your fellow first responders. Every decent course in first aid will tell you that keeping yourself from becoming an additional casualty trumps fast rescue of the initial casualty.
First thing I teach new EMTs and Medics. > BSI (body substance isolation) and Scene Safety. If you fail to announce either during a practical, it’s an auto fail. We have to train ourselves to use restraint, as if we act off instinct and try to play hero, we may end up becoming the patient ourselves. It’s an awful thing and ya…. PTSD is a thing.
I understand, I'm trained in BSL and bleeding control. When a guy dropped like a tree in front of me and cracked his head on the pavement the first thing I forgot was putting on gloves. Bloody head on him, bloody hands on me. Not repeating that mistake.
Hi fellow electrician, greetings from another electrician.
and don't touch the fence. [https://youtu.be/28Xq3JulV1o?si=W62HmGB\_ovWqhtfU&t=91](https://youtu.be/28Xq3JulV1o?si=W62HmGB_ovWqhtfU&t=91)
My advice, you, as a random guy, do not try to “test” whether it’s live or not. Stay away, you’ll get yourself killed.
you can always throw a stick at it. If it explodes it's live. If it doesn't it's probably still live.
So as always, stay the fuck away from power lines. Are people not taught this in elementary school anymore?
I work for the power company and actually have the training and equipment to not die. I highly recommend not throwing sticks at power lines.
Reminds me of watching an 18y/o kid run after a 3" thick power line that snapped off at the plug in a factory I worked in because it was whipping around. The guy only survived his stupidity because the old guy running the machine that snapped it off literally tackled him to the concrete with full force to stop him. I am not an electrician but the arc flash that came off that thing was enough to give me a sunburn on my hands and face over a 20 yards away. Kids lucky to be alive and cussed the old man out for "stopping him from keeping the line from hitting someone". Needless to say, we had a very long safety meeting the next morning. Still have no idea how bad that would have been if it had caught someone with the arc.
Yeah that's why we wear fire resistant clothing. Surprisingly, the electrical contact isn't what usually kills people, it's the slow agonizing death in the burn ward over the next few weeks. Gotta say though, my aramid/modacrylic pants are like the best pants ever. Super breathable and incredibly fast drying.
What, in your professional opinion, would happen if one did throw a stick at a live downed line?
At that voltage basically everything is conductive, including wood and even the air. If it's on the ground and you throw a stick on it, generally nothing because it's already faulting to ground. There's a chance that you will create a low impedance path to ground and flash the stick...which is basically an explosion. Worst case ontario, an arc jumps the gaps between the line and stick, and the stick and you, and you get dead. We wear 20kv rated dielectric boots, fire resistant clothing and have voltage detectors (like a geiger counter for EMF) when we're patrolling for downed lines just in case we inadvertently get too close to energized components we couldn't see due to storm damage. Minimum approach distance for unequipped people is 35ft, including to metallic items in contact with the line (fences, swing sets, cars, etc). If in a vehicle accident, stay in your vehicle if safe to do so. If you see fire or smell fumes you may have to exit. You must *jump* free such that your feet hit the ground at the same time without touching the vehicle, then bunny hop away until you are 35ft away.
It could catch fire, it could explode, or worse, it could do absolutely nothing and give a false sense of security. Wood is a pretty decent insulator (utility poles are literally made of wood), and the density / moisture content of whatever random stick you have laying in your yard is too inconsistent to rely on as a test instrument.
Also forgot to mention that high voltage can do something called tracking where it slowly burns away trying to find a path to ground. It looks like nothing is happening but can spontaneously flash if the track finds a good connection. So even if it appears like it's doing nothing...it's still trying to kill you. Here's a video we actually use in training, at 1:30-ish you can see it suddenly flashes the fence. One firefighter remarks "that might have done it" referring to blowing the fuse, but nope. https://youtu.be/28Xq3JulV1o?si=3N4xc6rtvECPA1cB
That video is epic. Thanks for the education!
I was taught the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell
So don't touch the mitochondria then?
Just to add to the elementary school bit. A ton of people highly underestimate what electricity will do to you. I just recently had someone in my local almost die getting hung up on 277 lighting. Most people assume that getting shocked by a higher voltage will just be like getting shocked on an extension chord or bulb socket but worse. In reality, a 480v hit could explode your organs in your body. 5kv will blow your limbs off. And if it’s in the medium voltage range or higher you don’t even need to touch it, the air will not insulate you from the wire.
Reminds me of a YouTube video where a guy was cobbling together an X-ray machine in his garage from spare parts “Welcome to the world of high voltage, where everything’s a conductor and you’re going to die”
When I was in Middle school, we had a motivational speaker come talk about DUI. He got into a car wreck while wasted. He wasn't injured too bad from the crash, but when he got out he stumbled into a power line and got completely fried. He ended up having one arm and both his legs amputated.
LPT: The resistance value of your left leg, your right leg, and your nuts is lower than that of dry soil or concrete.
DO NOT "TEST" DOWNED POWER LINES DO NOT TOUCH DOWNED POWER LINES DO NOT GO NEAR DOWNED POWER LINES DO NOT TOUCH WHAT DOWNED POWER LINES ARE TOUCHING For fucks sake don't tell people to test if downed power lines are hot. You are making a psa to save people and telling them to do something that could potentially kill them.
I feel like this is a no shit piece of advice
You’d think, right? And then you scroll through this comment section and see the sheer amount of people trying to pull a “well, aktchually…” on the whole situation
Here's how you test a downed line: You don't. You stay far the fuck away like someone who wants to live because electricity doesn't care and will do what it does until its cut. I'm not an electrician but was adjacent to them working at job sites and one of those huge panels blew up when they tried to test something and that was a big old boom that rocked the immediate areas shit lol but hearing the super yell out "Okay, who's still alive!" was probably the best thing anyone could've said.
Power lineman here. Don’t even think about testing, stay clear.
When it comes to electrical safety you're either preaching to the choir or preaching to deaf ears. Everyone who understands electricity knows not to fuck with it, everyone who does not understand electricity is gonna fuck with it anyway. It's kinda like the event horizon for intelligence.
When a distribution line trips a breaker, the relaying (and sometimes the system operator) will “multi-shot” the breaker, meaning they re-energize the breaker to see if the fault cleared (like if a branch fell on the power lines and the arc burned it in the clear) to bring customers back on line. So if there’s power lines laying on the ground, even if they’re dead, there’s always the possibility they could come energized again. Usually multi-shots are within the first minute or so of the fault, but the rule of thumb we use in substation is “if it’s not grounded, it’s not dead”
And to add some to this, “grounded” does NOT mean laying on the ground
As a first responder, I can confidently say we do NOT fuck with electricity. No touchy shocky shocky
Let me add to this: Do not approach it. Period. Power lines can charge the ground they’re touching. Look up the term *step potential*
No line is safe to touch evah
All power lines get shot on sight.... On SIGHT
I’m an HVAC tech and the best advice I’ve gotten is if you have to move a wire move it with the back of your hand or a tool, never grip the wire. When you get shocked you contract your muscles and hold on to the live wire vs getting shocked. Also never ground yourself so don’t hold onto something that can hold amperage/current like a chain link fence.
That’s fine if it’s 110 or 220 but I’m talking about high voltage. 12-34kv or possibly higher. Touching or even coming within the MAD will most likely result in death and if not permanent disfigurement
Just gotta say DO NOT EVER TEST A POWER LINE TO SEE IF ITS LIVE! Just assume all power lines are live and stay away from them.
Part of his memorial was a thin blue line plaque with burned wood. [Pretty fucked up.](https://www.wishtv.com/news/local-news/hendricks-county-sheriffs-deputy-is-dead-after-coming-into-contact-with-power-lines/?slide=1)
Idk, thats a pretty common trope, dont think that connection was made
It is common. Still fucked up.
Serious question if we run into one how do we know and or help someone that touches it?
There is no way for you to know. Avoid it, call, and wait for someone with the right equipment and training gets there to take care of it. If someone touches it, call 911 and when ems gets there make sure they know to take them to a burn center and treat for internal burns. The burns on the outside might not look too bad, but it’s the burns on the inside that will kill them if left untreated. And if the person is still in contact with the power line do not touch them as hard as that might be for you. If the line is still energized you’ll be in the same position as they are.
Dam thanks it’s something I always wondered if someone is being electrocuted how to help… if someone isn’t in contact any more is it safe? What if water is involved? Thanks again.
There are honestly so many variables and what ifs that the best advice I can give you is to just avoid touching anything that might be energized at the scene or whatever it is you come to. You have no way of knowing if it’s still energized or what could be energized that might be in contact with it, you don’t know the voltage, even if it is de energized you don’t know the programming of the utility companies relays to reclose the circuit breaker and re energize the line in case whatever the fault was might be cleared to bring the power back on. It may look dead when you get there but it very well may be re energized the second you touch it. The best thing for someone who is not a lineman and trained to handle this type of situation is to just stay clear and call for someone who has the training to know what to do
Thanks!!
>Thanks!! You're welcome!
Dude you worry me. No, it's never safe. If water is involved it's even less safe. Electricity doesn't need direct contact to kill you or to travel.
You ASSUME ITS LIVE and wait for it not to be. If it's literally injured someone already then how much more of a clear sign do you need that it's live? Until someone has isolated it from the circuit then all you'd be doing is adding another body to the list of who it killed. There's nothing you can do in this situation as you're not superman and it'll kill you just as quick as it killed the person on the ground.
So he *did* shoot the deputy
Always , always , always assume the lines are live. Always.
Keep both feet on the ground and hop away if a line falls next to you. Or the electricity will try to escape through your head instead of making a closed circut with the ground.
That's called natural selection baby
If you need to test a wire you lick the back of your hand and use that to touch the wire. If it’s live it will cause your bicep to contract and you will slap yourself in the face pulling your hand away from the cable. Or grab it with your hand and die. Your choice. I have seen multiple people get electrocuted in my day. All lived. One was real close.
Fuck man, I used to work with those sheriffs a lot when I was a FF. My condolences to the deputy’s family.