tragedy in gaysville/stockbridge

[madhatter]

sadly my neighbor was killed in a freak accident yesterday...many of you may know him and his wife as owners of School Street Bistro in Rochester....Brent also worked for eatons sugar house previously and was a great welder/fabricator also...

http://www.mychamplainvalley.com/news/v ... /779648158" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://vtstatepolice.blogspot.com/2017/ ... death.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jimmywilson69]

Vibes to you and his family. That's a shame...

[Bubba]

Heard that story on the news last night. Difficult to contemplate the freak nature of the accident.

[madhatter]

Heard that story on the news last night. Difficult to contemplate the freak nature of the accident.

he was a good guy and had a great life...gone way too young for nothing...

his wife posted this for anyone interested...

https://www.facebook.com/SchoolStreetBi ... 7A&fref=nf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There will be a memorial service for Brent this Sunday at 11 in Pierce Hall

Pierce Hall is in the center of Rochester...

[freeski]

Sorry to hear this MH.

So, a tree branch can conduct enough power to kill? Good to know I have maple I was going to cut a few large branches hanging over the wire coming into the house. I Called Unitil and they said yes it can kill you. They're sending out a truck to trim it at no cost.

[madhatter]

Sorry to hear this MH.

So, a tree branch can conduct enough power to kill? Good to know I have maple I was going to cut a few large branches hanging over the wire coming into the house. I Called Unitil and they said yes it can kill you. They're sending out a truck to trim it at no cost.

FVCK YEAH IT CAN KILL YOU...same w digging, never take a chance, ever...ladders too, even a wooden one...always call...

[SnoBrdr]

Sorry to hear this MH.

So, a tree branch can conduct enough power to kill? Good to know I have maple I was going to cut a few large branches hanging over the wire coming into the house. I Called Unitil and they said yes it can kill you. They're sending out a truck to trim it at no cost.

Sad to hear.

The WCAX story made it sound like a branch drooped a power line and he may have been touching a piece of equipment that was then charged by the wire.

Wood cannot conduct electricity that I've ever heard of.

[eagle628]

Wood cannot conduct electricity that I've ever heard of.

Wood can easily conduct electricity as long as there's some moisture in it. Touch a wet branch to an electric fence to find out. Or, for a more depressing demonstration, seems like every year there's a story of a herd of cows that shelter under a tree in a storm and are all killed when the tree is struck.

[SnoBrdr]

Wood cannot conduct electricity that I've ever heard of.

Wood can easily conduct electricity as long as there's some moisture in it. Touch a wet branch to an electric fence to find out. Or, for a more depressing demonstration, seems like every year there's a story of a herd of cows that shelter under a tree in a storm and are all killed when the tree is struck.

Would have to be really wet wood.

Not a tree branch I wouldn't think.

And would have to be a hell of a large charge in the line.

[biged]

Sorry to hear of the accident.
Electricity, when it shorts to the ground, can still electrocute you if you are standing next to where the point of contact is. Especially with high voltage, not stepped down by a transformer. Riding my bike under 315 kv lines I wonder what makes the snap crackle pop sound you hear on hot days. Maybe humidity in the air being boiled on impact by the line. Demand is highest in the summer so a lot of juice is running thru the lines, give line crews plenty of room and always expect downed lines to be live..

[Mister Moose]

Something is missing from this story.

The service drop to your house is only 110V. (To ground) You'd have to grab both wires to get the combined 220V. To be lethal, you need to generally be at least damp if not wet, have the current pass through your torso not an extremity, and be exposed for a longish period of time. A branch passing you as it falls isn't very longish. The bad news is there is no circuit breaker that will trip at any low current if you do get to be a conductor, you'll have to trip the fuse at the transformer, and that's a huge amount of juice. To put 220V in perspective, I know old school electricians that would intentionally touch (tap) their fingers to conductors in a panel to see if it was live. So can it be lethal? yes. Is it always lethal? No.

Electric fences are 3ish thousand volts. That's enough volts to drain through grass, vines or branches. (Trees are 20% moisture content) It doesn't kill the cows because A) they have thick hide with hair and B) it is current limited. The voltage is pulsed in small intermittent packets, the wire does not carry the voltage continuously. Anyone who has felt a cattle fence (And I'm one of them) knows the difference between 110V and 3,000V. 110 is a spasm buzz, 3,000 is a sledge hammer.

The primaries on the telephone poles are 13,000 volts. That's instant death.

So missing from the story is was this a service drop to the house, or the street-side telephone pole? Did he get hit by the falling butt end of the branch in the head even though no one saw it happen and electricity wasn't even a factor?

There's certainly a lesson for us here, I'm just not sure what it is. I'm very sorry this tragedy happened to a life full of promise, talent and family.

[madhatter]

Something is missing from this story.

The service drop to your house is only 110V. (To ground) You'd have to grab both wires to get the combined 220V. To be lethal, you need to generally be at least damp if not wet, have the current pass through your torso not an extremity, and be exposed for a longish period of time. A branch passing you as it falls isn't very longish. The bad news is there is no circuit breaker that will trip at any low current if you do get to be a conductor, you'll have to trip the fuse at the transformer, and that's a huge amount of juice. To put 220V in perspective, I know old school electricians that would intentionally touch (tap) their fingers to conductors in a panel to see if it was live. So can it be lethal? yes. Is it always lethal? No.

Electric fences are 3ish thousand volts. That's enough volts to drain through grass, vines or branches. (Trees are 20% moisture content) It doesn't kill the cows because A) they have thick hide with hair and B) it is current limited. The voltage is pulsed in small intermittent packets, the wire does not carry the voltage continuously. Anyone who has felt a cattle fence (And I'm one of them) knows the difference between 110V and 3,000V. 110 is a spasm buzz, 3,000 is a sledge hammer.

The primaries on the telephone poles are 13,000 volts. That's instant death.

So missing from the story is was this a service drop to the house, or the street-side telephone pole? Did he get hit by the falling butt end of the branch in the head even though no one saw it happen and electricity wasn't even a factor?

There's certainly a lesson for us here, I'm just not sure what it is. I'm very sorry this tragedy happened to a life full of promise, talent and family.

I don;t think it was the line going in to the house, but out by the street...children's camp road branches off laury road and runs a good distance before it reaches the parents house(s) which I'm pretty sure are the only ones on the rd...looks like power is underground from the street to the house...not sure that any lines actually came down...from what I gathered a branch hit the powerline and brent hit the ground as that happened....no exact knowledge as to how electricity made it from overhead to him but the article said he may have been in contact w a piece of equipment...my guess is a boom truck...

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/564- ... lpage=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Highway Star]

Something is missing from this story.

The service drop to your house is only 110V. (To ground) You'd have to grab both wires to get the combined 220V. To be lethal, you need to generally be at least damp if not wet, have the current pass through your torso not an extremity, and be exposed for a longish period of time. A branch passing you as it falls isn't very longish. The bad news is there is no circuit breaker that will trip at any low current if you do get to be a conductor, you'll have to trip the fuse at the transformer, and that's a huge amount of juice. To put 220V in perspective, I know old school electricians that would intentionally touch (tap) their fingers to conductors in a panel to see if it was live. So can it be lethal? yes. Is it always lethal? No.

Electric fences are 3ish thousand volts. That's enough volts to drain through grass, vines or branches. (Trees are 20% moisture content) It doesn't kill the cows because A) they have thick hide with hair and B) it is current limited. The voltage is pulsed in small intermittent packets, the wire does not carry the voltage continuously. Anyone who has felt a cattle fence (And I'm one of them) knows the difference between 110V and 3,000V. 110 is a spasm buzz, 3,000 is a sledge hammer.

The primaries on the telephone poles are 13,000 volts. That's instant death.

So missing from the story is was this a service drop to the house, or the street-side telephone pole? Did he get hit by the falling butt end of the branch in the head even though no one saw it happen and electricity wasn't even a factor?

There's certainly a lesson for us here, I'm just not sure what it is. I'm very sorry this tragedy happened to a life full of promise, talent and family.

Clearly they contacted a local distribution line which is typically on a pole and can be in the tens of thousands of volts. In this case, it sounds like the branch acted as a conductor from the line to a "piece of equipment", possibly with rubber tires and not grounded, and then through his body and into the ground. If he had moist shoes on with a hand on the equipment, even a 200v (after voltage drop in the rest of the circuit) potential across his body would have produced enough current to kill him very quickly.

[madhatter]

Something is missing from this story.

The service drop to your house is only 110V. (To ground) You'd have to grab both wires to get the combined 220V. To be lethal, you need to generally be at least damp if not wet, have the current pass through your torso not an extremity, and be exposed for a longish period of time. A branch passing you as it falls isn't very longish. The bad news is there is no circuit breaker that will trip at any low current if you do get to be a conductor, you'll have to trip the fuse at the transformer, and that's a huge amount of juice. To put 220V in perspective, I know old school electricians that would intentionally touch (tap) their fingers to conductors in a panel to see if it was live. So can it be lethal? yes. Is it always lethal? No.

Electric fences are 3ish thousand volts. That's enough volts to drain through grass, vines or branches. (Trees are 20% moisture content) It doesn't kill the cows because A) they have thick hide with hair and B) it is current limited. The voltage is pulsed in small intermittent packets, the wire does not carry the voltage continuously. Anyone who has felt a cattle fence (And I'm one of them) knows the difference between 110V and 3,000V. 110 is a spasm buzz, 3,000 is a sledge hammer.

The primaries on the telephone poles are 13,000 volts. That's instant death.

So missing from the story is was this a service drop to the house, or the street-side telephone pole? Did he get hit by the falling butt end of the branch in the head even though no one saw it happen and electricity wasn't even a factor?

There's certainly a lesson for us here, I'm just not sure what it is. I'm very sorry this tragedy happened to a life full of promise, talent and family.

Clearly they knocked down a local distribution line which is typically on a pole and can be in the tens of thousands of volts. In this case, it sounds like the branch acted as a conductor from the line to a "piece of equipment", possibly with rubber tires and not grounded, and then through his body and into the ground. If he had moist shoes on with a hand on the equipment, even a 200v (after voltage drop in the rest of the circuit) potential across his body would have produced enough current to kill him very quickly.

HS has the most likely scenario though I believe the line wasn't knocked down but merely came in contact w the equipment after being hit by the branch either by conduction or direct contact...

and yes there are many lessons to be learned here...

never fvck around w power lines, always respect the hidden potential danger...

crazy sh!t can happen unexpectedly at any time w/o warning...

every time you lay your head down and wake up to see the sun the next day consider it a privilege denied to far too many...

probably a bunch more too...

[DrJeff]

The other potential is that he had some previously undiagnosed, potentially congenital in nature, cardiac condition that affected the electrical pathways in his heart, so while in the actual sense it may not of been a lethal amount of juice in the line, for him it could of been