Overhead or underground electrocutions

[Tom Dunlap]

If I'm up to date on death incidents from electrocutions in arborculture I think that there is about one per week...correct me if I'm way wrong, either way.

The thought came to me...are any of those deaths from underground utilities?

When I've taught EHAP classes the question has come up a few times. How do we maintain Minimum Approach Distances/MAD for underground? Whew...I dunno?!?!

When I operated my tree care company there was only one time that I had an issue with an underground utility. A HUGE willow trunk was felled in an open yard. The tree put a divit in the yard and severed the phone line from the pole to the house. I NEVER even thought about getting a locate since we weren't grinding the stump. I found out that the line was laid on the dirt and the sod right on top! No one was injured, the phone company did a repair that evening.

Does anyone have any stories about underground utilities?

A buddy was grinding a stump well away from where the gas line was located. Ooops...hit the gas line! No explosion...whew! He called the utility...then 911...then grabbed his pliers and kinked the copper gas line shut. The locate was wayyyy off so we didn't get into trouble...or killed.

 

[Merle Nelson]

I have heard multiple stories about shallow underground utilities back east. Not injuries or fatalities but problems for the tree company. How about getting some laws and regulations with teeth in them against improper installation.

All overhead wires have to be above a minimum height (maybe 14 feet plus.) If companies started hanging them randomly down to 10 feet, 4 feet off the ground we would have a lot more issues.

 

[surveyor]

Not felling a tree, but setting a concrete control monument at the road R/W intersection, we were digging the hole with a post hole digger through very pebbly soil, with each strike there would be sparks flying. I had just taken my turn with the digger at about 1 foot deep, when after a strike, the bottom of the hole began to hiss and I realized I had hit a natural gas line. Fortunately there was no explosion and we had the gas company called in to repair.

I have felled a small pine cutting boundary line, without realizing there was an overhead feed line because the small pines were so thick. With the tree leaning on the wire, It began to arc and smoke intermittently, eating its way through.

 

[Jeff]

setting a concrete control monument at the road R/W intersection

One of our survey crews did the same thing driving an iron pin, but through the underground electric primary feeding the entire street. Thankfully no one was hurt or killed. Turns out the electric utility had cut the corner laying the line and it wasn't where it was supposed to be or where it was marked out.

 

[TreeCo]

I was grinding a stump about 25 years ago and noticed sparking on my side at the edge of the hole in the soil the stump grinding was making. I though I was hitting metal or a stone. I swung the grinder to the far side of the grind to check it and maybe remove the offender and just luckily I noticed two small copper wires.

Come to find out the home owner had buried a 220volt line from his house to garage and only had it trenched in about six inches. I could have been shocked through the machine or even shocked while rooting around in the soil for what I was hitting(which I didn't do), or even shocked just by standing on the soil but luckily I didn't get shocked at all.

He turned power off at the breaker and I finished grinding.

Death is often closer than we know.

 

[treehumper]

While grinding a stump in a garden home complex the operator on our crew went after a surface root. Got to no more than 4" and it started to sound like a jet engine. The area and all the homes were evacuated while every conceivable first responder and utility company employee showed up. Nothing was supposed to be there. Nothing on any of the plans, no shut offs, yet there it was. They chastised the owner for not getting the markout but, when they came to try and locate the line and where it went there was no signal because it was a pvc pipe. A lot of anxiety but no disaster. Never heard what came of it all.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Thanks for the stories

 

[cerviarborist]

I think my take-away from this thread will be to make a utility locate a mandatory part of my pre-work checklist, regardless of the scope of the assignment. It's a free service, and using it does nothing but show a higher level of professionalism. I've gotten comments like "I've lived in this neighborhood for 30 years, and yours is the first tree service I've ever seen do a utility locate before starting work." It just makes sense to make that 811 call.

 

[treehumper]

Where an address is straightforward it absolutely makes sense. We ran into a problem with 811 due to some stump locations where we couldn't give them exactly what they wanted and the delays kept pushing us back.

For us septic systems and drainage systems are a problem.

 

[TreeCo]

I think my take-away from this thread will be to make a utility locate a mandatory part of my pre-work checklist, regardless of the scope of the assignment. It's a free service, and using it does nothing but show a higher level of professionalism. I've gotten comments like "I've lived in this neighborhood for 30 years, and yours is the first tree service I've ever seen do a utility locate before starting work." It just makes sense to make that 811 call.

I agree with you but in my story above, it wouldn't have made a difference.

The the power line I hit was not part of the utility system and would not have been marked.

A local plumber was electrocuted a few years ago a couple of miles from here. He was under a house looking to fix a leak and came up on a 120volt line that was laying in the mud under the house. It's quite fortunate that there wasn't a second victim in the case....the first rescuer could easily have crawled into the same hazard area. Luckily pros responded, saw the wire down, and killed the power.