I had another ash tree fall over on me today. I set out to take down 3 dead ash trees. The first one went butter smoothe. The second was just a 90 foot stick with a three stem top. It was set back about 6 feet from a 13.2 kv line. I was working over top of the primary with a 75 foot bucket. I lowered out the three stems separately with no problems. I then took a small section of the pole about 7 feet long. It goes over and about half way to the ground the pole just starts to go over head right into the wire and towards the truck. All I could think was line was coming down and the tree was going to hit the truck. I tried yelling to my rope man to let it run but he was clueless as to what was about to happen. So anyway it goes over and just pushes the primary about 10 feet out from center. I was lucky enough to get a line up high in another tree and tie it off to the tree about 3/4 the way up. I had a block at the base and then put it on the truck and picked it back off the line and slid down a bit relieveing some of the tension on the primary and got hung on a another tree on the other side of the line. So the tree is still in contact with the energized conductor. My co-worker who was a "safety coordinator" for Bartlet decides to go picking at the roof flare of this tree. I had to yell at him, he said he didn't know he thought it was "low voltage". Any way with a throw ball I set another bull line in the same tree in a lower crotch and secured it. I was then able to take the remaining pole in two pieces and lowering them to ground.
What may have been a disaster for some turned out to still be a good day for us. One less stump to have grind and all the work got done with no losses.
What may have been a disaster for some turned out to still be a good day for us. One less stump to have grind and all the work got done with no losses.
