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[TowerTalk] Power lines, hawks,and fire ignition (slightly off-topic)

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Subject: [TowerTalk] Power lines, hawks,and fire ignition (slightly off-topic)
From: "Bill VanAlstyne" <w5wvo@cybermesa.net>
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 10:53:45 -0600
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
I couldn't help but wonder at this snippet from an AP newswire article in
this morning's paper regarding how the Santa Clarita wildfire in California
supposedly started: "[The wildfire] was ignited when a red-tailed hawk flew
into a power line, was electrocuted and fell, burning, into brush."

I know some of you guys on this list are extremely knowledgeable about the
basic physics of electromagnetism. Could somebody please explain how a
single high-tension AC wire can ignite a hawk? (Yuck.) Where does the
current flow -- I mean, between what and what?

Bill / W5WVO
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