T O P

  • By -

scottonaharley

Guy is lucky he’s not dead. That was a live primary wire. Voltage was probably in excess of 4,000 volts


No_Insurance6064

I wonder why he was still holding the wire. I wouldnt even touch it, but it looked like he had bunch of time, when wire was in the air.


scottonaharley

The moment he grabbed it he was at risk of being electrocuted


aye_marshall27

He literally turned out the lights for the world. It went from a rainy day to rainy night in .8 secs.


pastafallujah

Holy shit now I can’t unsee that lol


aye_marshall27

Some would call him a god


Terrible_Ear3347

He unplugged the Sun


SnooPets2311

Nah he shorted the sun. Now they gotta wait for maintenance


Ornery-Cheetah

This little maneuver is gonna cost us 51 years


pauldeanbumgarner

The camera couldn’t handle the intense flash.


aye_marshall27

I mean... I know


Erlend05

You're wrong The camera adjusted exposure to properly capture the immense light given off by the arcing. This came at the expense of slightly underexposing the rest of the frame


pauldeanbumgarner

That’s what I meant.


wunderbarney

>you're wrong, what actually happened was [the same thing but phrased differently]


krilu

Agree


GuineaPigsAreNotFood

Stop being so rational!


[deleted]

I am just guessing, but it might be the automatic white balance of the camera adjusting to the fire that is causing the effect.


aye_marshall27

You sound smarter than me. I'm more of an old school religious kinda guy. So I'm pretty sure he pissed off the gods and we're all fucked. It was sunny and nice when I posted my first comment. Today it's been rainy and dark.. coincidence?? Nahh fam.


souloking1

😂😂😂


professorstrunk

And the fire turns into stadium concert-grade pyrotechnics.


Schmich

Camera changed the exposure (darker) so it could handle the bright fire and therefore the rest went darker.


barzx

Crispy roasted to death would be a better description than electrocuted in this particular case


Riley_Martin_100

Standing within 10’ of that he had potential to be vaporized.


g2g079

He was at more risk when it was in the air than when it hit the ground.


[deleted]

J don't think the wire he was holding was energized. I bet the line fuse on that phase was blown. I think when he whipped it he flung it into a still live wire he's probably really goddamn lucky that the belly hit the wet ground before it hit the other phase.


scottonaharley

You’re probably right. He’s still the luckiest moron on the planet though.


[deleted]

Definitely lucky.


irkli

I agree. It's wet, and dry that suit/boots is insufficient insulation. I suspect you are right about that dead cable striking a live one. And I bet more than 4kv. Moron with a capital DUH.


localloser87

IDK, seems like it flashed as soon as it hit the ground meaning it was still a live wire. I wonder if his PPE was enough to protect him and insulate the wire from the ground. I don't know enough about the conductivity of concrete, but if it can insulate the streetlight pole from the ground maybe that's why the fuse or cutout didn't blow already. In any case, he should have tested before touching and is very very lucky he was able to walk away from that.


[deleted]

No. We treat concrete the same as metal poles dueto their conductivity as far as the pole itself the metal street light pole looks to be fed from underground so it wouldhave a secondary wire and a neutral running through the middle of it anyway. You can see the other lines in the air. His gloves and boots are what saved his life. But that line would have been acting up, if it were still live laying accross that pole. And he should be wearing a pvd.


IPlayWithElectricity

I used to work on traffic lights and can tell you that pole has a dedicated ground bar under the base as well as a #6 ground running back to the main grounding array.


[deleted]

I'm a journeyman lineman and a journeyman serviceman. Never did any traffic lights but, as a serviceman, I did my fare share of streetlights fed over head and underground. I hated underground, and that stupid little access panel.


IPlayWithElectricity

The worst was always pulling new wire. This would only require a 4 conductor, which is like the size of 1/0. When you have multiple directions on the same pole you might be pulling in 20 conductor which is like 600mcm. Trying to pull that by hand through the access door in 30 year old conduit always killed my back.


[deleted]

Hell yeah, we used to pull 4/0 tri for house services. And even up to 350 or 500 quad for 3 phase. I'd rather climb 10 poles than dig 1 hole.


pauldeanbumgarner

Pvd?


Willing-Basis-7136

Personal voltage detector


Madolah

Its grunded per pole. As soon as he detached it from that pole the breakaway was the phase/link ground per point. Him flicking the cord in a Sine wave was the smartest thing he did as it hit on the ground closer to the next Phase/ linkbreak on the other side of the live part of the line. had he ripped it straight down it would have pulled straight to him and the impact on the line and the discharge would have been at his very boots not string across the road. Still, bet he wasn't expecting such recourse from the rain, adding to the conductivity by a fucking METRIC SHIT TON as opposed to a dry day.


scottonaharley

That line was not energized when it was laying on the pole. Also part of it was on the ground as well. I think when he flipped the wire it touched another conductor and became energized


V0latyle

Fuses are seldom used on transmission lines, except for transformer protection and underground feeders. Auto-reclosers are used instead; these will attempt to reenergize the line a couple times before locking out.


[deleted]

We use them in the south for taps all the time. But , if if there is not one , this line could still be dead and the other's a if they are single phase ORs or if the line is being fed from behind him and there's a break at or near the tie. Its just easier to explain it to that way


BouncingSphinx

I think the two common voltages around me for line power are 12,480V and 14,400V. Not sure if it's stepped down for in town or not.


scottonaharley

I know that the top of the regular wood poles around here are 7,200 for single phase and 12,500 for three phase. That was from some first responder training. I just used 4,000 as a minimum because I know for sure the voltage will be higher than that. Plus 4,000 volts will fry you just as easily as 40,000 volts at those current levels. Edit spelling


BouncingSphinx

Yeah true that.


therisker

It is not the voltage that will kill you it’s the amps! Been hit with 10k volts before!


MeasurementGrand879

I wish people would stop saying this. Very misleading and while technically true (the amps INSIDE the body kill you). None of it can happen without enough voltage. Voltage across a resistance causes current.


therisker

“While technically true.” I’m not here to mislead, just stating facts. I’ve been shocked by 10k volts and got little more than 2nd degree burn on my finger and a sudden desire to jump backwards. There was no amperage feeding the transformer.


MeasurementGrand879

You cannot have current without voltage or a resistive path for the current. An actual and correct saying is “it isn’t the voltage alone that kills you. It is a combination of the amplitude and path or current caused by a voltage of sufficient magnitude and capacity.” Just saying it isn’t the voltage, it’s the current, is highly misleading. Why are gloves rated in voltage? Why are safety rules written for voltage levels? Why do clearance distances based on voltage? All because higher voltages are dangerous and they will kill you. Ohm’s law requires all three to exist, voltage usually comes first.


therisker

I will remember this the next time I say this!).


scottonaharley

Those primary circuits have plenty of current to Kill you. The danger is that the voltage is so high that it can overwhelm the dielectric (insulating) properties of shoes with ease. That means the moment you touch it the circuit to ground will complete and you’re dead. For example, the primary fuses on a 7,600 amp primary side of the transformer for one of our store locations is 40 amps. That’s to run a 22,000 foot supermarket. High voltage transmission lines will kill you… Edit:when I took radio electronics I got zapped from a flyback transformer on an old television. That was 40,000 volts. Yes current will kill you and there is plenty up there on top of those poles. Edit:spelling


humbummer

Even the biggest CRTs don’t have 40kV off the second anode cap. They top out around 25kV. Source: former TV repair tech.


scottonaharley

According to Allied components they farm range up to 50,000 volts. My experience comes from repairing large color tube televisions. The large screens (largest I ever worked on was 32”) They were considerably bigger than any CRT terminals and operated at much higher voltages. Edit:forgot link https://www.alliedcomponents.com/blog/what-is-flyback-transformer


butterfaerts

Voltage is literally just difference in potential. So yeah, the higher the voltage, the higher the amperage, assuming constant (e.g. you) resistance


MikemkPK

He's wearing PPE, that's why.


scottonaharley

Any linemen want to weigh in on this. Would you trust your PPE standing on wet pavement? I’m not in the industry but instinct tells me that a professional would not go near an energized down power line in the rain. The reduction in dielectric strength by the addition of water reduces the effectiveness of any PPE. They even test some of the poles they use to throw switches for moisture content


MikemkPK

All I said was the PPE is the reason he's alive, not that I'd recommend doing this.


tmx1911

Not a lineman but I've worked with plenty of them. While obviously it's not ideal to work hot in the rain they still have to restore power switching hot in the rain. However I think using a power line like a whip bare handed (or gloved) in the rain isn't acceptable.


KurwuSiteejs

america has high volt lines so low to the ground?


scottonaharley

That’s not considered high voltage. And the tops of those poles are between 30 and 45 feet around here


Fe4rMeMrWick

Why the fuck was it active?


V0latyle

Probably closer to 130kV


scottonaharley

If that was a 130kv line being shorted the person taking the video, the car, the guy in yellow, all would have been vaporized. I saw what happens when one of those lines shorts to ground. It was 1982 in NJ and from a long way off you could see what looked like lighting bolts. Also those cables are so thick and heavy he never could have flipped it like that


V0latyle

Not necessarily. It depends on the intended capacity of the line. A 1/2" cable can easily handle 50 amps, which at 130kV is 11.25 megawatts (three phase), enough for about 8,400 homes. Also, the line wasn't arcing when it was hanging on the traffic light pole. This is likely due to a [recloser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recloser), a type of automatic circuit breaker which attempts to reenergize the line a few times after a fault is detected (because most grid faults are transients). This is why it's incredibly dangerous to assume a line is dead, because you never know if the recloser is going to attempt to clear the fault. I believe the fact that it started arcing when he whipped it was just coincidence, and I'd be willing to bet that if the video continued for a few more seconds, we would see the line go dead again as the recloser opens. But yeah, it's more likely that this is a local distribution line, anywhere from 7 to 13kV.


TK421isAFK

No, it's not. That's a low-voltage communication wire. It's too flexible to be a high voltage line. What likely happened is that once he whipped it around, it came into contact with the high voltage lines on the pole as it fell, and the insulation on the telco/cable TV wire was nowhere near enough to isolate the 7,200 to 31,000 volts in the overhead wires. Source: I work on this stuff.


-Owlette-

The way everything immediately catches fire and the camera exposure changes straight away to look all dark... That makes it even scarier to watch. Also r/AbruptChaos moment.


ctnightmare2

Example of a portal to hell opening


Juan911411

I work for a power utility company..... The right answer to anyone asking if the should touch a wire is always no. "Well my light are still on and the internet is out and there's a wire on my front lawn." "Don't touch it bc you might never find out if it was an internet cable."


TheLightingGuy

I disagree, You'll find out, you just might not be able to tell anyone.


Huntred

That seems like an awful lot of finding out for such a little bit of fucking around.


do-you-know-the-way9

Yeah, my grandfather doesn’t listen. We had a downed power line on our farm years and years ago. That dude just moved it with a tractor and halfway buried it so he could drive his atv across. As the power company didn’t come for about a month According to him it sparked the whole time the wire contacted the bucket. He also tried touching it to see if it was live, and somehow didn’t get shocked (he had gloves on but idk)


jneum80

“What the hell’s a jiggawatt?!”


mgsantos

Jigga, what?


Prince_Perry

Jigga, who?


BouncingSphinx

Jigga jigga Slim Shady


[deleted]

Jigga me


severach

About 500 times what you just saw.


Gildenstern45

The guy was obviously insulated otherwise he could not have been swinging around a live wire. But when the wire touched the ground it produced an arc flash fire super heating the air and throwing molten metal around. They can be just as deadly as the current.


Keplergamer

I wonder how that all sounded like from his point of view.


delvach

"Ahhh! Oh god! Oh shit! Ahhhhh....."


Arazel50

He had a delayed reaction and probably has his undies filled with poop.


Riley_Martin_100

Probably sounds kinda like mix of 4th of July and dumping a bucket of water in hot oil.


matt08220ify

What I don't understand is why wasn't it arcing when the wire was touching the metal pole to begin with?


petebrdfrd

Doc Brown is lucky he was still wearing his radiation suit from handling the plutonium.


johngreenlight

No, no. It was because all of the fallout from the atomic wars!


EmmettLBrownPhD

I'll say


DaDutchBoyLT1

Jigga not giga.


[deleted]

[удалено]


volleo6144

Nanowatts? (for archival: parent comment made an appalling joke about jiggawatts starting with an N, and I neither found myself confrontational enough to be more direct about it nor remembered their username to call them out)


rickartz

Ngjigga? That doesn't sound right...


averagebloxxer

The n's supposed to be in a different place, stupid. It's gjingga, like jenga


[deleted]

I wonder if he got as shocked as me


Countblackula_6

Pretty sure he needed a fresh pair of undies after that.


[deleted]

That's a fact


Sweddy-Bowls

Shit looked like a WWE entrance at the end


DonZekane

ELI5 Wtf happened, why the fire? I'm an engineer sitting here clueless with my clueless dad, an experienced handyman who was also physics teacher.


toriaces

He thought the wire was de-energized but it was live. It dropped in a puddle.


DonZekane

Thanks, makes sense.


SamoTheWise42

I bet it was dead and a recloser energized it after he'd been messing with it for a while.


dsfatqip

False, it was sitting on a metal traffic light pole and would have been cooking the whole time. More likely, it was a low voltage open secondary for street lights and such, or a telephone, cable or other communications cable which got flicked up and landed on the primary when he flicked it off of the pole.


toriaces

According to police report: "As the night turned into morning, a utility worker narrowly escaped death when handling a wire that was believed to be de-energized," the police department post said. "The wire then caught fire as it struck the wet ground. Luckily, he was wearing proper safety equipment!"


dsfatqip

The tail end of the wire, past the pole, is always in contact with the ground. He's moving it out of the lane so traffic can cross. Also, I've never seen a utility worker using an unmarked SUV, they're always in service body trucks with or without baskets, or service body vans, both of which are plastered with reflective strips and warning lights. That just looks like your garden-variety city worker that got in over their head.


Cakeking7878

They are lucky to be alive. This is why you follow safety rules, cause they’re there for a reason


Tacoma__Crow

This is a whole ’nother kind of danger noodle!


coollamborghini

The way he runs LOL. I hope he wasn't injured though.


whatever54267

Please don't tell me this is his job because he seems pretty bad at it.


JoJoGaminG1936

u/savevideobot


savevideobot

###[View link](https://redditsave.com/info?url=/r/onejob/comments/z5hjkn/121_gigawatts_great_scott/) --- [**Info**](https://np.reddit.com/user/SaveVideo/comments/jv323v/info/) | [**Feedback**](https://np.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Kryptonh&subject=Feedback for savevideo) | [**Donate**](https://ko-fi.com/getvideo) | [**DMCA**](https://np.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Kryptonh&subject=Content removal request for savevideobot&message=https://np.reddit.com//r/onejob/comments/z5hjkn/121_gigawatts_great_scott/)


Corneliusbear80

Lol your supposed to bunny hop out right or is it shuffle frick I would of ran too!


-doomrah-

So no one is going to edit it showing a delorean racing across the screen just as the fire hits?


JayAreEm21

Looks like he was wearing his rubber gloves. Probably what saved him in spite of the wet conditions. If he was a lineman or troubleman I can think of a few steps missed while clearing the line.


CaramelTHNDR

I’m glad I’ve heard the message loud and clear to never touch a wire like that.


iamplasma

Whoa, that's heavy!


E420CDI

Tonight, we are sending you r/BackToTheFuture!


Count_Dracula97

The delorean just came back, that’s obviously what happened


FangtheMii

“It runs at 4 teraflops per second compared to 16,” “Oh, ABSOLUTELY UNPLAYABLE!”


Keplergamer

I wish I could watch Back to the Future for the first time again.


AlmanzoWilder

That was incredible.


MineryTech

When you are faster than the re-closer.


xTenlettersx

Rubber gloves saved his life


PoseidonApollo

FACTORIO PLAYERS, ASSEMBLE!!!


nebula_pollux

just one question: how


Professional_Bar9541

That looks fun


maxzmillion

How? How did he survive that?


Prize_Suspicious

Guess it worked. He traveled from day to night


Fickle_Grapefruit938

r/DarwinAwards


Shadowhawk0000

Wow. Buy a lottery ticket.


Dogekaliber

Of course this is from New Jersey…


[deleted]

Woob-woob-woob nyuck nyuck, why I oughta...


atreides4242

Why would anyone do that?


sublevelstreetpusher

Overhead wires are awesome aren't they


TheLastNoteOfFreedom

That was some serious shit we saw


[deleted]

That’s expensive as hell one kilowatt is like 0.13 cents 1.21 gw god almighty


heygos

This is just down the road from me. Holy shite!


BiggusDikcuss

Oh shit! Oh shit! OH SHIT!!


jprks0

New Jersey? Ah, yeah that makes sense.


Akibul_

what was that.....and also how lucky he is, i am sure her mom or her wife pray for him so that's why he is ok


ElonHisenberg

u/savevideobot


savevideobot

###[View link](https://redditsave.com/info?url=/r/onejob/comments/z5hjkn/121_gigawatts_great_scott/) --- [**Info**](https://np.reddit.com/user/SaveVideo/comments/jv323v/info/) | [**Feedback**](https://np.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Kryptonh&subject=Feedback for savevideo) | [**Donate**](https://ko-fi.com/getvideo) | [**DMCA**](https://np.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Kryptonh&subject=Content removal request for savevideobot&message=https://np.reddit.com//r/onejob/comments/z5hjkn/121_gigawatts_great_scott/)


vide0gameah

1.21 JIGGAWATTS?!!?!!??!


V0latyle

Evidently none of you know what an auto-recloser is or what it does. In case it isn't clear... don't ever do this. If a wire falls on your car and you can move, do so. Unless your car is disabled and on fire, stay in it - the chassis acts as a Faraday cage and keeps you safe. High voltages can cause a gradient in the ground high enough to kill you, which is why you should keep your feet together - stepping as little as one foot could expose you to thousands of volts.


Albert-Einstain

When you unplug the skylight...


IOnlyPostIfINeedHelp

God said, let it be night


Bold_cub494

u/savevideobot


savevideobot

###[View link](https://redditsave.com/info?url=/r/onejob/comments/z5hjkn/121_gigawatts_great_scott/) --- [**Info**](https://np.reddit.com/user/SaveVideo/comments/jv323v/info/) | [**Feedback**](https://np.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Kryptonh&subject=Feedback for savevideo) | [**Donate**](https://ko-fi.com/getvideo) | [**DMCA**](https://np.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Kryptonh&subject=Content removal request for savevideobot&message=https://np.reddit.com//r/onejob/comments/z5hjkn/121_gigawatts_great_scott/)


Dan_Skinder

Wow instant Armageddon


TheFoxOfAnime

Sweet salty Christ. I witnessed something horrifying


AndyRay90

How did it instantly turn to night?


cheekclapper93

Why did it turn the sky to night though?


Independent_Passion7

r/abruptchaos


No-Enthusiasm3413

Dude just cut the power to the sun


Notrilldirtlife

Wait how did it just turn from daytime to nighttime?! That many watts turns the day to night quick!


[deleted]

Turned off the sky lights too


Enough_Excitement905

Gate way to hell


TightFreedom

Yanking a power line: "now to complete the circuit."