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

[Keith Dutson]

I saw that on the news this morning and figured it must be a joke.  Or,
maybe the political news is getting so stale that they dreamed up another
sensational story. :)

AFAIK it takes about one million volts to jump an inch arc in air at STP.
However, once a path is established, such as ionized air, the required
potential drops drastically.  Perhaps the bird hit one line and left a trail
of blood in the air to a second line whereby the arc could form.

Keith

-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Bill VanAlstyne
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 11:54 AM
To: _Mailing List Tower-Talk
Subject: [TowerTalk] Power lines, hawks,and fire ignition (slightly
off-topic)

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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