Beam of Light in Escanaba Substation Explosion

a reply to: Bedlam

Some good points about the inner contents. Some even use soy based oils now. I have in laws who own a transformer company and have seen both types of oils burn and they put out some pretty dense smoke. Not to mention in the substation there will be things like 3 phase reclosers and other devices that have plastic components which also produce some thick smoke. Would be easy for light to reflect off of that especially with some constant arcing.

a reply to: NihilistSanta

The arcs you get are incredibly bright. It being the sort of weather that promotes light pillars, I could easily see the beam, the smoke, and the color changes.

eta: I looked again, and either the pics are thumbnails or it's a "before" picture or "this is what a substation looks like". No pics of what the aftermath looked like so far that I can find.

a reply to: Bedlam

If it hadn't been for the roads I would have gone to take some pictures today. (First day we've had a babysitter in awhile!)

Maybe I can scoot out there this week, but chances are it'll all be cleaned back up by now anyway. I know they've had power restored for awhile now. And whatever isn't cleaned up will surely be buried by the snow.

a reply to: cmdrkeenkid

You'd think total electrical destruction would be something interesting for the news guys. Looking at the fireworks, it was probably pretty destructive.

a reply to: Bedlam

We were back in Detroit when it happened. Made the nightly news down there, but nothing more than a quick blurb that it had occurred. I felt like President Obama: I first heard about something happening in my own backyard from the news.

originally posted by: cmdrkeenkid
a reply to: Bedlam

We were back in Detroit when it happened. Made the nightly news down there, but nothing more than a quick blurb that it had occurred. I felt like President Obama: I first heard about something happening in my own backyard from the news.

I'd have been sitting across the street with popcorn. But then I'm a gawker.

originally posted by: NihilistSanta
a reply to: Bedlam

Some good points about the inner contents. Some even use soy based oils now.

I had a sort-of friend that died of brain cancer (more or less) a few years back. He had gotten a couple of whoopsie baths in Pyranol in his post-military career, which is nothing but essence of PCBs with Dioxin sauce. It's what they used to use in transformers, because it had a real high voltage breakdown and was good at high temps.

I don't know that's what got the former Colonel, but it's like being sprayed with Agent Orange, so I'd put it up there with a short list of other crap he ran into during his service.

a reply to: Bedlam

They still test them when they come in for service for PCB's and they have to remove those units and dispose of the PCB contaminated oil. PCBs are known to be linked to cancer. The soy based oils have to do with new environmental regs in some states. I know Texas has mostly switched over to the soy based oil in many places and I am sure further out west it is like that. The soy oils are pretty expensive comparatively speaking. Last I remember it was something like $12+ per gallon as opposed to $3 or so for the former. They also in some older units still have asbestos wrapped leads. There are mercury switches in some devices like reclosers that occasionally burst or are damaged and this leaks into the oil and all of this leaks down the poles and into the ground. Its amazing we aren't all full of tumors and glowing in the dark at this point haha.

Sorry to hear about your friend. I know people that still work around the stuff and they don't really make much money to be pissing their health away so to speak but that's what happens, and although it is supposed to be highly regulated some of the companies I am familiar with operate out of MS and there is very little oversight or someone is getting paid to keep quiet at inspection time.

Back to the OP. The link in the OP made mention of another incident like this occurring 200 or so miles from this location. Has anyone been able to find out anything further about that incident?

a reply to: NihilistSanta

I find the information in the original post a bit dubious. As I mentioned before, I was down in the Detroit area when it happened and heard about it on the nightly news. There are also plenty of sources dated within 48 hours of the event, which can be seen here.

It's a small power plant, in a small town, in the UP of Michigan. I would have been more shocked if it were national headline news.

As far as the other incident goes, the link provided goes to another less than forthcoming news source (it refers to Alpena as a Canadian border city, for example). It seems more of a diatribe about Russian troops allegedly training in America than going into detail about any explosion. Also, the link in the original post states that an explosion occurred in 2012 in Alpena, while the source it provides says 2013. That second website then links back to the original website's homepage and also provides a couple Facebook posts for sources.

Doing a Google News search for "Alpena explosion" between the dates of January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2013, does not provide any useful information.

the beam's intensity is consistent even though the explosion is not a reply to: theantediluvian

Ok, so I don't know a lot about explosions....

Is it normal for the sky to do that? I thought there was just an explosion and than fire and that was it. In my recollection I've never seen the sky look like a multicolored lightning storm afterwards.

did not read all the thread dont no if its been saied, m in mi when it is really really cold all the bright lighs from things like airport lights shoot straight up like that, not shure if thats what it is but looks like it,

Well it's really cold now so maybe somebody should herd there for tonight and get some pictures. I'm in Michigan but probably 10 hours away!



7 hours through Wisconsin and 8 hours if I went all Michigan

a reply to: mikell

I'm going to try sometime this week, but as I said in a previous post, between the time from the event, the associated repairs/clean-up, and the weather there may not be much to see.

Escanaba in da Moonlight anyone??? www.youtube.com...