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

To: "Bill VanAlstyne" <w5wvo@cybermesa.net>,"_Mailing List Tower-Talk" <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Power lines, hawks, and fire ignition(slightly off-topic)
From: Jim Lux <jimlux@earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 11:19:24 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
At 10:53 AM 7/20/2004 -0600, Bill VanAlstyne wrote:
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
_

It's a pretty rare HV line that's a single conductor.


The hawk's wingspan can easily be 4 ft, more than enough to bridge two wires on a MV (14-16kV) feeder. Doesn't look that big when you see them flying up in the air, and the wings fold nicely when they are perching at lower heights.

OR, the hawk lands on the crossbar of the power pole and bridges between grounded pole and hot wire.

For hardcore researchers it's Buteo jamaicensis...


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