Crane/powerline survivor

Re: Crane/powerline survivor

This time of year when it rains elms and cottonwoods that I have seen removed then to have quite a bit of water in the trunk which would help that arc. Very lucky man.
 
Re: Crane/powerline survivor

I see why some were sceptical of the pic, its a one in a million shot. Glad he survived. Thanks for re-posting the link!!
 
Re: Crane/powerline survivor

I talked with the climber yesterday. He didn't feel any shock. He also did not see the arc flash. It's really hard to believe it if you look at the individual picture of course. In the pic it looks like he was looking directly at the arc. The arc was in front and to his right. He was looking hard left about ninety degrees away from the arc.

Maureen shared the series of pics taken before and after the arc. When I have time I'll work up a more complex article.

There is a lot of skepticism about the pictures. After spending about two hours on the phone talking with four of the people involved I heard the same story from each. Is it plausible that they would conspire to make up a story? The tree came down in July and these threads are the most attention that the picture has gotten.
 
Re: Crane/powerline survivor

Real, real, real! I heard from a groundie working on the job... this is a for-sure thing. Crane operator was blind and the crew had no signal man!
 
Re: Crane/powerline survivor

[ QUOTE ]
Real, real, real! I heard from a groundie working on the job... this is a for-sure thing. Crane operator was blind and the crew had no signal man!

[/ QUOTE ]

Blind picks are dangerous. After one frustrating day of 90% blind picks on on 2 removals, I made the decision to buy Peltor Helmet Coms. A pricey venture, but safe as can be. The past 2 crane jobs (within 2 weeks) have had a majority of the time working blind. However, the communication seems like a "no brainer" now that I have them. I wish I had them a long time ago

I don't have their helmet package, but I have the system to connect to my Petzl Vertex Vent.

Check this out.

BTW. My crane operator says he cannot hear the chainsaw because of the noise cancellation feature.
smirk.gif
 
Re: Crane/powerline survivor

Is it just me...or is the climbers hair standing up in the picture?? If you look at the picture and look at the "tear/barber chair" it looks like it rotated which, I guess, is where the contact was made with the wire. The fact that nobody saw the arc makes me think back over the years on how many of us that have had this happen and never realized it!!! O.K. Tom I want another FREE EHAP class so I can see the rest of the pictures!!
 
Re: Crane/powerline survivor

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Real, real, real! I heard from a groundie working on the job... this is a for-sure thing. Crane operator was blind and the crew had no signal man!

[/ QUOTE ]

Blind picks are dangerous. After one frustrating day of 90% blind picks on on 2 removals, I made the decision to buy Peltor Helmet Coms. A pricey venture, but safe as can be. The past 2 crane jobs (within 2 weeks) have had a majority of the time working blind. However, the communication seems like a "no brainer" now that I have them. I wish I had them a long time ago

I don't have their helmet package, but I have the system to connect to my Petzl Vertex Vent.

Check this out.

BTW. My crane operator says he cannot hear the chainsaw because of the noise cancellation feature.
smirk.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

EarMark are better....two people can talk at the same time....course they cost more though. I wqant to sell the three Peltor Lite coms I have and get something better.
 
Re: Crane/powerline survivor

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Real, real, real! I heard from a groundie working on the job... this is a for-sure thing. Crane operator was blind and the crew had no signal man!

[/ QUOTE ]

Blind picks are dangerous. After one frustrating day of 90% blind picks on on 2 removals, I made the decision to buy Peltor Helmet Coms. A pricey venture, but safe as can be. The past 2 crane jobs (within 2 weeks) have had a majority of the time working blind. However, the communication seems like a "no brainer" now that I have them. I wish I had them a long time ago

I don't have their helmet package, but I have the system to connect to my Petzl Vertex Vent.

Check this out.

BTW. My crane operator says he cannot hear the chainsaw because of the noise cancellation feature.
smirk.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Jamin, I have had the Peltor for over a year,everyday they pay for themselves.Having a crew of five guys can be alot of chaos sometimes,but the communication is priceless.We have had a few problems with them,but the company we purchased from is more than happy to help out. The Headsets are pricey....but when it comes to safety and communication when can you put a price tag on either.
 
Re: Crane/powerline survivor

[ QUOTE ]
EarMark are better....two people can talk at the same time....

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm... At first I thought that was a good thing. But, then I thought of that as being a disadvantage. It would be safer if one person were talking at a time, wouldn't it? Unless there is an advantage... Is there?
thinking.gif
 
Re: Crane/powerline survivor

Well, the way Earmark are set up is, one headset is the master and the additional set are "slaves". The master can talk whenever and hears one slave at a time. The advantage is you can have instant converstation when things get funky. It is better to be able to talk at the same time.

I have the Litecom...they work great, but there are a few problems. One is fricken baby monitor interference. But any radio is better then none...

there is a big price difference between Earmark and Peltor

400 vs 700'ish.
 
Re: Crane/powerline survivor

My apology if this is truely real. And what a great photo if it is real.

But I have to say too, it doesn't seem right to me.

Now, I don't know a whole lot about the things electric can do, but at a winter conferrence this past year I learned something from a speaker from our local power company. He educated us on electrical hazards.

He asked, "how much do you think electric can jump? Even on our most powerful distribution line, how far?" No one really answered.

He said the most powerful lines can only jump something like 1/8" or something like that. 1/8" or 3/16", I don't think it was as much as 1/4".

He said, some of their bucket workers will claim that they had a 10 foot arc jump to their tool in a bucket truck. He said it's not true, it didn't JUMP to them. The worker bumped the tool (like a pole hook or something)on the actual line and was moving the bucket away, in doing that he said you could then pull like maybe a 15 foot arc. But you pretty much have to bump the line with something, then move it away to pull an arc.

So, knowing this (back to this picture), this means that contact was made with the electric line while at least some of those elm fibers were still attached. AND it would have PULLED an arch, not just a quick flash of an arch.

And your telling me the climber didn't see any of it?

Makes me wonder if the climber is maybe a fairly honest man and doesn't want to say he saw anything he didn't see.

That arc wasn't just a split second, unless the crane was winching up at unbelievable speed. It would have been what, at LEAST 5 seconds long.

- I just looked at the picture again. Alright, I'm calling it bullcrap. The sapwood sliver sticking up, (the barbar chair shard); would have been in contact with the raising log the longest amount of time, and this would be the easiest path for the electricity. Why then does the arc just go down to the flat top of the log. The arc should be going to the barrbor chair point. Sorry to offend if this is real, but my vote is it's a photoshop photo.
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Re: Crane/powerline survivor

Alright, I'm surely no computer wiz and I only know a little about using Photoshop.

Actually used the blurr tool for the first time on this.

I doctored up their photo.

Now, honestly, I spent about 20 minutes on this and I don't know how to use most of the tools on photoshop.

But here's what I did.

I change the arc to different location points; more believable ones. To the barbar-chair tip and to the sapwood on the log being lifted, not to the heartwood like they had it.

The most time I spent was drawling bark over the old arc that I wanted to remove from the picture.

I put a little blurred smoke in the sky above the arc too and I put a little reflection in the guys glasses and forhead.

What do you think?

Also, what do you guys think about the color of this arc. Shouldn't it have some white and blue in it? The original person used oranges and reds like fire.

I've convinced myself that the picture and the people are full of it.

Small town, create some excitement.

Lots of liars out there in the world. I'd guess that 95% of the population tells significant lies on a daily basis. It's an epidemic.
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Re: Crane/powerline survivor

Well...call it what you want...

I've spent close to two hours on the phone talking with the people involved. All of them tell the same story...an no one has anything to gain by telling a whopper. The tree came down in July and has just become infamous now.

The homeowner sent me all 360 of the pics that she took that day. Seeing the sequence of shots before, during and after the cut shows that it indeed did make contact and then an arc was pulled.

She's asked me not to spread the pics all over the Internet.
I know...this sounds like a conspiracy. Tell Mulder to head back to the office though...no conspiracy.
During a talk with Tim Walsh he told me how far an arc can be pulled at varying voltages. The arc distance is consistent with the voltage. The tower pole is a single steel tower with one line on the left, then up maybe 20-30 feet there's another line on the opposite side. Another same distance and there's a third. I'm not a utility guy so I don't know what that configuration is built for.

The pic was taken with a long zoom lens so the setup is very compressed. If you had a bird's eye view you would be able to see that the arc was over to the climber's right at about arm's length. He is looking way back to his left and up.

After talking with the climber for almost 45 minutes I realized that he is not the most careful climber. His description of how he setup the crane picks gave me concern.

Again, believe it or not, I'm not going to hold a gun to anyone's head to convert them. I'll put all my money on the legitimacy of the pics. And...

I don't gamble...I climb trees for a living. That's all the gambling that I need in my life.
 
Re: Crane/powerline survivor

[ QUOTE ]



I don't gamble...I climb trees for a living. That's all the gambling that I need in my life.

[/ QUOTE ]

That is a very good lesson to be learned from all this. Why gamble? We all make decisions in our climbing and our cuts which to the layman may seem like we are being wild and crazy, but in actuality we are being safe and efficient. Gambling, guessing, or hoping a pick goes well, is not a way to do tree work, and live for another day.

When we are in the tree, it is up to us to do it right. No one else.

What I take away from this post of Tom's is a heightened awareness of a very real danger. Electrics are all over the place, every day while climbing I see wires, and I tend to take them for granted.
Right now, in certain parts of the country we have had major storms, downed power lines, and the inevitable storm clean up. A good time to step back and take a real hard look at those wires before climbing. I personally will be going into my winter work soon, so I personally will be doing some storm cleanup.

If nothing else, I sure am noticing those wires a bit more now.

And that is why I think this thread was created.
Thanks Tom.

ps: it is sad (but also wonderful) that the computer has made us all so jaded/sophisticated that when we see a picture we all think that it has been altered with a software program.
I remember first seeing a stuffed trout with fir and thinking it was real. Now you can see just about anything.
 
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