ELECTROCUTION
16,600 VOLTS!
In Approx. Feb 1996,This person who is high on PCP was trying to kill himself. This situation lasted for about 45 minutes. This being toward the end of the situation,the person had already walked from A previous power pole by means of walking on the low voltage wire and hanging on to the other wire that was around him. The Power Company had denergized the low voltage wire at this point. What you see now is this person on PCP accending the the level of HIGH VOLTAGE. The wires above him at this point are energized at 16,600 volts WYE system. "for all you overhead junkies"
CAUTION THE FOLLOWING IS VERY GRAPHIC !
The person who was on PCP at the time. Reached out his hand and grabbed the conductor! At that instant 16,600 volts shot through his body. If you can belive it, the guy is inside of the ball of fire that you see. He did not fall at that moment. The air surrounding him becomes ionized and begins to conduct and actually burn. The small ball of fire that you see towards the bottom near the street lamp is where the arc went to ground through the secondary conductors. Notice the whipping action of the wire he is holding onto. You might find it interesting to compare all the pictures with one another
to try to see if you can pick out all the changes as massive amounts of current try to reach ground !
As you can see, The ball of fire has started to subside. If you look closely you can see his legs at the bottom of the fire ball he is still standing on the crossarm. A flash of eletrical power of this magnitude would kill most all people. If you can believe it , this guy survived the contact with the high voltage and to this day is still alive! If you made it to this point-- YOU GOT GUTS!!!
A special thanks to Ben of the L.A. Power & Water Dept in California for providing me with this information!
Marc Staves, mstaves@earthlink.net.