Posted on 10/11/2017 12:30:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway
As the first reports came in Sunday night of numerous fires that would grow into one of the most destructive wildfire disasters in California history, emergency dispatchers in Sonoma County received multiple calls of power lines falling down and electrical transformers exploding.
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over a 90-minute period starting at 9:22 pm to respond to 911 calls and other reports of sparking wires and problems with the county’s electrical system amid high winds.
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(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Ping
Don’t those transmission lines have heavy duty insulation? Those orange balls. Aren’t they meant to keep them from shorting out in hi wind areas?
Might be a chicken/egg thing in this instance.
The orange balls are to keep aircraft from not seeing them.
A for the lines dropping and transformers blowing, what came first, the fire or the fore mentioned?
A friend of mine lost her house, the gas line blew a few feet away and her house was one of the first three to burn down. PG&E dragged their feet in the lawsuits, causing further grief. My friend had to spend years trying to get compensated after losing a lifetime of possessions.
It'll be painful for all the people who lost homes in the wine country fires, for years to come as they try to settle up and rebuild. Will be interesting to see the lawsuits against PG&E.
The same thing happened in Central Texas in September 2011, when Bluebonnet Electic in Bastrop, TX had a line break and ignite tinder dry pine straw after a searing summer drought. An early cold front blew in with high winds, snapping the line and quickly spreading the resulting flames. Amazingly, only two people died, but 1684 families had their homes turned to ashes before the fire was finally controled.
Power lines droop in heat and can cause fires. A remedy for this is to install newer transmission line cable that has a composite (ceramic) wrap that prevents drooping.
This has been a chronic problem for PG&E over the decades.
PG&E Guilty In 1994 Sierra Blaze / 739 counts of negligence for not trimming trees
When I first heard about the fires, PG&E failure to maintain trees was my first thought, but I couldn't bring myself to believe that they would do it again after being punitively fined for it before. If true, this is the kind of corporate negligence that warrants prison for executives.
-PJ
I know. The question is what came first, the fire or the lines dropping. The article implies it was the fault of the electric company.
Installing power lines underground is also a great way to prevent problems from wind and snow.
New York City managed this before 1890.
NYC = a few miles. I don't think you grasp the challenges of pushing electrons over hundreds of miles.
The orange balls are for marking the OH lines so planes don’t hit them. Overhead transmission conductor is not covered with insulation.
NYC = literally THOUSANDS of miles of cabling that have been routed underground.
No. Typically they don’t have insulation on them.
The orange balls are just to make them more visible.
The causes of the fires have not been determined. In the meantime, do not demonize PG and E.
“But the radio traffic of Sonoma County firefighters suggests that downed, perhaps windblown, electrical wires could be to blame for some of the blazes. In the first half hour of the inferno, starting at 9:22 p.m., emergency dispatch recordings reveal that teams were sent to at least three downed wires and three fallen trees, as well as a transformer explosion.”
Wind gusts of 68 mph were recorded in Santa Rosa and 79 mph on a nearby mountain peak.
Bill and Aileen Charamuga said in September they believed they knew exactly where the Butte Fire started: Under a power line that crosses their property on Charamuga Ranch in Amador County.Cal Fire’s incident investigator Gianni Muschetto went to the same area the day the Butte Fire broke out, Sept. 9, 2015, near Charamuga Ranch and Butte Mountain roads, east of Jackson...
On Thursday, more than seven months after the Butte Fire changed the lives of residents in multiple communities across Calaveras County, Cal Fire confirmed the Charamugas’ suspicions, as well as suggestions made by utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric on Sept. 16:
Contact between a live tree and PG&E power line sparked the Butte Fire.
April 26, 2017: More Butte Fire fines levied on PG&E - Utility ordered to cough up $8.3 million
CPUC found in its investigation that PG&E did not safely maintain its 12-kilovolt overhead electric conductor in a safe and proper manner, resulting in an $8 million fine, the maximum for any one citation issued under the CPUC’s rules and regulations.The investigation revealed a planned removal in January of 2015 of two trees close to the area exposed the gray pine tree that sparked the fire when it contacted a PG&E conductor in September of 2015.
“Part of our investigation included determining when PG&E had last conducted vegetation management in the area, which was January 2015,” Christopher Chow, an information officer with the CPUC said Wednesday.
June 22, 2017: Judge Confirms PG&E To Pay For Butte Fire Victims’ Damages
The California Public Utilities Commission’s investigation found that PG&E did not have the minimum clearance required around its equipment and failed to maintain its overhead conductors safely and properly. A gray pine tree contacted a PG&E 12-kilovolt overhead electric conductor and ignited the fire on September 9, 2015. The Butte Fire burned 70,868 acres in Amador and Calaveras counties. It destroyed 549 homes, 368 outbuildings and four commercial buildings. It also resulted in two civilian fatalities and one injury.
August 11, 2017: Butte Fire judge rejects PG&E motion to bar punitive damages:
The Sacramento County Superior Court judge responsible for handling all Butte Fire claims has denied a motion by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. that sought to strike all punitive damage claims from Butte Fire victims’ cases...Judge Allen Sumner denied the PG&E motion because he concluded that reasonable jurors might find the utility company’s failure to properly vet and supervise independent contractors that handled its vegetation management program demonstrated a conscious disregard for public safety.
In September 2015, a tree contacted a PG&E power line and sparked the 70,000-acre Butte Fire, according to a subsequent investigation and report by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. In the aftermath of the blaze, more than 2,050 plaintiffs filed suit against PG&E for the damages they suffered.
Demonize? PG&E has been in the news as recent as last month over past behaviors.
Like I said, it appears to be a chronic issue at PG&E. They do some fire prevention management, but it doesn't seem to be systemic.
-PJ
Doubling down on stupid.
Bravo for you - how about some more? You really believe you can bury 115kV lines running DC current across hundreds of miles? Please tell as you clearly are an expert in this.
There was a grass fire right next to my work this summer. It was started by a transformer that sparked or exploded - apparently spontaneously.
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