topic Fire In The Wire............. in Community Spirit

Fire In The Wire.............

fourandsixpants — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 13:52:57 GMT

Four Corners ABC MON 28th Oct 2013 http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2013/10/28/3876333.htm

'Fire In The Wire'

.....man made 'lightning' from power lines, fuses, clashing conductors/powerlines, birds on lines, falling branches on lines.....causes bush fires

From Black Sat on Feb 7th in 2009, 161 deaths of the total 173 were attributed to power lines.

Apart from maintenance - of power lines, poles, fuses, attaching spreaders betwn lines (to stop both conductors and lines from touching or 'clashing' during high winds) and eliminating low voltage conductors, clear trees and branches and undergrowth it has been discussed that power be turned off to certain high risk areas at times to prevent these horrendous fires.

South Australia has recently identified and adopted turning off power as good practice if req'd.

.....why don't other States recognise and adopt same - turn off power? If not, why not?

Or is there a better way?

Re: Fire In The Wire.............

debra9275 — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 21:15:33 GMT

I watched that last night too. Turning off seems a good idea to me. The old SEC did lots of research on it before electricity was provatized

Re: Fire In The Wire.............

cq_tech — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 02:06:20 GMT

I can see the point, but a lot of rural homes use mains power to operate pumps and switching off the mains could leave these people virtually defenceless in the event of fire.

Re: Fire In The Wire.............

***super_nova*** — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 02:20:58 GMT

Turning power off sounds good, just imagine how much would be saved in power bill, which normally soars on such days. Every day of high fire danger there would be no airconditioning, no refrigeration and all the food would go off, people who need power for their business/employment could not work, no traffic lights, no trains. Early this year we had here in Victoria almost uninterrupted several weeks heat wave. If the power was off, the state would have stopped.

Re: Fire In The Wire.............

***super_nova*** — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 02:25:53 GMT

@cq_tech wrote:
I can see the point, but a lot of rural homes use mains power to operate pumps and switching off the mains could leave these people virtually defenceless in the event of fire.

In most cases when there is a bushfire the power goes off anyway; the recommendation is to have petrol driven pumps for fighting fires.

But another thing of being without power is that people would also have to rely on battery powered gadgets to keep in touch and informed; and batteries do not last all that long.