Dangers of high voltage (not for faint of heart)

ak country girl · 10-05-2006, 06:42 PM

This Alaskan Brown Bear (Grizzly) found out about the dangers of high voltage the hard way. He tried to make a snack of some 2400/4160v line that feeds a cathotic protection system at Elmendorf AFB.

I can only imagine what this would have done to a frail human after seeing what it did to this big brute. :whazzup:

jokester · 10-05-2006, 06:56 PM

Saw those pics about 2 weeks ago

Definitely a "hair-raising" experience

(sorry, had to get that one corny joke in for the day :grin

-jokester

ak country girl · 10-05-2006, 07:02 PM

Definitely a "grizzly" experience....

greenbuttskunk · 10-05-2006, 07:06 PM

oh no! I can bear to see those pics again!

Man, that was sure original of me! :grin:
joking aside, poor fella. A real waste.

Fast Water · 10-05-2006, 07:33 PM

Totally shocking.

8-guage · 10-05-2006, 07:51 PM

Sad! Period.

Gundog · 10-05-2006, 09:55 PM

Quote:

He tried to make a snack of some 2400/4160v line that feeds a cathotic protection system at Elmendorf AFB.

Actually that is not a 2400/4160 volt line it is a 120/240 service line. The wire does not have enough insulation for that voltage and the fiberglass box is only rated for secondary use. This is the same type service line that feeds your house think about this the next time you dig a post hole in your yard without calling the under ground utilities hot line.

That UG box is supposed to be burried not just set on top of the wire they are lucky it was not some kid who got into it. Leaving an unsafe condition like that is criminal.
GD

tree37 · 10-05-2006, 09:59 PM

shsss....baby sleeping

Abalone · 10-06-2006, 10:46 AM

That'll teach him ! ZAP !

REEL TIME · 10-06-2006, 11:13 AM

truly an unBEARable situatuin.

RvW · 10-06-2006, 11:30 AM

Sure thats not just a service drop or splice in a surface pedestal gundog? Lots of them above ground, but it should have been bolted to a slab of concrete. I dont see any holes in the flange. Either way, its very strange how the bears skin/fur seems to be attached to the pedestal. I wonder if that piece of paper attached to the yellow deliniator is a temp permit? That would make sense.
Shame the lineman didnt safeguard the service loop.
My guess is, a tastly little critter went under the pedestal into the conduit and Mr bear was hungry.

Chrome Bumper · 10-06-2006, 11:43 AM

And who said flossing is good for your health, 3 conductors? hot neutral ground? 480 maybe?

RvW · 10-06-2006, 11:48 AM

Chrome bumper, it looks like the wire over the leg was cut before the picture was taken. And the one in his mouth looks like a loop under his neck. In a service drop or splice, you dont often have a ground, just a hot leg (or two) and a return.

Quoted from Megan Holland, Anchorage Daily News:

The bear found at Kincaid was a healthy adult male that had made its way to the park either by passing through the residential areas near the park, by coming up from Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge or by swimming across Cook Inlet, Sinnott speculated.

Sinnott estimated the bear to weigh more than 600 pounds: "He's one of the bigger brown bears I've seen in Anchorage."

He said he would not likely be able to age the animal because its teeth were burned from the electrocution.

Thursday afternoon, the 7-foot animal, stiff in death, lay on its side. The bear still had the wire in its mouth, its tongue and teeth burned and blackened. A patch of grass under the left foot was singed. The smell of scorched meat hung in the air.

The bear found the two wires -- about the thickness of vacuum cords -- by first ripping off a 3-foot high protective plastic box. It appeared that almost instantly when the bear bit into the wire, it was electrocuted. "It didn't thrash much, it was pretty quick," Sinnott said.

Bears like to chew on plastic, said Sinnott, who was not surprised the bruin was curious about the box and its contents. "I don't know what they get out of it, but they are curious and he might have tried to investigate it just because it's rubber or plastic."

The bear bit into 5,000 volts of energy, according to a Chugach Electric Association spokesman Phil Steyer, who said the apparatus did not belong to the company but likely to the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, the owner of the land where the bear was found.

Steyer said the company often deals with birds or squirrels that are electrocuted, but in his 19 years on the job, he's never heard of anything close to the size of a brown bear being killed by the wires.

like gundog said, its unlikely the wire was 5000 volts. I doubt it was any more than 220v 60-100 amps.. Any more than that likely would have exited the bear explosively at the ground source leaving a paw or two looking like hamburger.
Electrocution causes muscles to constrict, especially the jaw, and probably caused the bear to bite down even harder on the wire while he was being electrocuted.

Seefood Man · 10-06-2006, 12:57 PM

Sad to see a beautiful animal killed like that.

Chrome Bumper · 10-06-2006, 01:55 PM

Looks like new construction, or under construction. No spiders in the box. No sun faded plastic. That's as bad as getting shot. That's gotta be a big rush to bump into one of those guys in the woods.

Gundog · 10-06-2006, 06:27 PM

It is a service drop that was the point I was making. The secondary pedestal is designed to be buried the lip on the bottom is what holds it in place after burial about 12-18". It is hard to see because the bear is lying on half of the box but if you look close at the bottom picture you can see the latch that takes a pad lock through it. The box is a 2 piece type the top slides over the bottom buried section. The bear probably could have destroyed it to get inside if he wanted too but that thing just tipped over. This should have never been left energized until it was properly secured. The big guy should still be walking around, laziness in this business leads to bad accidents what if that was a couple kids that found that and decided to play with it?.
GD

Chrome Bumper · 10-06-2006, 06:57 PM

I am sure the property managers had some issues with whoever did the work. I would hate to be in a plane and collide with that critter.

Hard to tell from the pics, maybe the box was buried and he rooted up the whole thing. Seems like it would need to be deep enough so frost heave wouldn't lift it out, or in conduit. Poor thing. Gundog you sound like an electrician.

Gundog · 10-07-2006, 09:37 AM

I have been a Lineman for 23 years installing those pedestals that is why I take offense to the lazy lineman who installed it. It was never burried or it would have dirt on it. After they have been burried they are not that clean.

I now work in power control in the office due to a blown out back.
GD