Posted on 06/17/2015 5:18:13 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A wildfire sparked by a turkey vulture that caught fire after shorting out two power lines according to a witness burned parts of an RV and two properties in Martinez Tuesday morning, causing an estimated $80,000 in damage, a fire official said.
Firefighters responded at 10:42 a.m. to the vegetation fire in the 800 block of Howe Road, Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Fire Inspector Steve Aubert said.
The witness told KPIX 5’s Don Ford that he saw the large turkey vulture short out between two power lines. When the bird began to burn, it started the brush fire. “Yeah, I just saw this giant bird sitting there and it just, blew up. I looked over and saw a flaming bird falling to the ground,” Danny Wiseman said.
“If you ever seen a transformer blow up, it was just like that, except it was a bird,” Wiseman said.
Roughly 10 minutes later, witnesses reported a fire was burning a fence and deck at a home in the 2400 block of Morello Heights Circle, Aubert said.
The fire burned a fence, an RV parked at the side of one house and caused minor damage at the home and burned the decking and fence at another home, according to Aubert.
Firefighters brought the fire contained shortly before noon and Aubert said fire crews had the blaze extinguished around 1 p.m.
Roughly an acre of vegetation also burned, he said. No injuries were reported.
The official cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Ban turkey vultures!
A hawk did the same thing last week,still had a snake clutched in it’s smoldering talons when they found it.
2nd time in a week:Flaming Hawk With Snake in Its Talons Sparks Fire Near La Jolla
I hate it when that happens ...
Turkey vultures can short out? Who knew?
The Pope be darned.....
On the other hand, the chickens seemed to have had no problem crossing their roads........
The snake in the hawk’s talons completed the circuit. That hawk won’t do that again.
Se post #4.
No matter what happens,a hawk will not give up it’s dinner.
Sometimes that happens to copper thieves at sub-stations.At least it’s an easy call for the coroner.
It’s their wiring. There needs to be a recall.
I guess the vulture didn’t hear about the hawk with the snake. :-)
DANG!
Vulture probably clawed the line and electrocuted himself. We had this happen on a city block in Philly, without the fire: A squirrel had been up running on the lines, and apparently had dug its little claws in for balance, a bit too much. Wham, he fell to the pavement, stunned. We took him to a wildlife rescue, but he died that night.
I have to say, I saw an outsized number of dead deer by the side of the road over the past week, like four or five in one week, where I usually see four to six a year.
Ban the Attack Turkey Vulture NOW!
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