Near Miss: Contact with High Voltage Power Line
This report is short, but contains a critical lesson.
Responded to wires down across roadway. After consulting with local electric company via phone, it was decided wire was a ground or guy wire. Moved wire out of way with tree branch. It turned out to be high voltage wire, luckily not energized. There was no risk to life or property at the time and no immediate action was needed.
Lessons learned from the report:
Take the time to think, especially when no risk to life or property is involved. Do not take the word of others, verify. Do a risk / benefit analysis.
This could have been really bad. Here are some coffee break questions to discuss:
When presented with a downed power line, who should move it?
What circumstances would indicate that the power line should be moved by firefighters?
Is there ever a safe time for a firefighter to touch or move a downed power line?
Posted June 22, 2006 09:02 AM · Link
· Near Misses
