Power Poles on Fire in Texas

This is my first thread and I'm a little scared so please be gentle
I don't know what to make of this and this is why I wanted to bring it before all of you very wise, well read and
experienced people !
This morning our local ran a story that seemed not too weird at all. Traffic problem in Dallas aerea due to a power pole on fire. Traffic is stopped in case the pole topples over after it's burned. Not a big deal but I like to watch the live feed on things like that out of boredom I guess.
Here's a link to that story .

www.myfoxdfw.com...

On the local news channel there is a live chat room, so it makes watching live feed a little more interesting.
I had no idea how interesting it would get. A chatter comes in and says " i wonder if this is related to the poles
burning in central Texas'' . Intrigued I go and find a link for that story. To say it's bizarre is an understatement. If I'm exaggerating, please put me in my place because this is so weird.

'''A Department of Public Safety communications officer said power poles in Hill, Falls, Bell, Williamson and McLennan counties mysteriously began bursting into flames at about 4 a.m. Thursday.

He said the fires that had been reported were burning at the tops of the poles, some involving transformers.

Various power company representatives had been dispatched to survey the damage and several fire departments were sent to douse the flames.''''
Link to second story below.

www.kwtx.com...

Now given my curious nature and from listening to many theories on this very site, I'm thinking to myself '' wow, what are the odds? '' The more I read , the more intrigued I am.

Notice in the second story, they never actually mention HOW MANY poles burned? It sounds like a lot ,but if they said the actual number ( 43, 67 maybe 130 ) wouldn't people really take interest and demand some explanations? I find it very curious they never say the exact number of poles burning. They mention
''As many as 30 power poles were burning in one area of Hill County, just off Interstate 35 at mile marker 361.

As many as 20 poles were reported burning in Bynum east of Hillsboro and and others in the Aquilla area where some customers were without power.'''
So here they've noted at least FIFTY burning poles within one small community and near one small town. Yet the report says over 5 counties, so there must be dozens more.
Also the report says ""One power company technician told a News 10 reporter near McGregor that the fires likely were caused by a build up of dust on transformers that shorted out due to low-lying fog.'''
This one is laughable. I know very , very little about electricity but I do know a lot about dust. While I could buy ONE pole spontaneously bursting into flames due to a dust buildup, there is no way I would ever imagine at least 50 + poles catching fire from dust at the same time. This is Texas. It's dusty here and we are in a drought. If this were the case, wouldn't hundreds of poles catch fire daily ? And what is with them only burning at the top ?
I spoke to a friend today about this. He mentioned the possibility of solar flares, but I am woefully uneducated in that so I cannot comment.
I'm left wondering about some type of 'different' or ' alternative' power surge that went through the entire grid, perhaps just leaving weak or older transformers susceptible to catching fire. It sounds far fetched, but I'm only guessing. It's a real head scratcher.

I welcome any comments or guesses or ideas. It's a real mystery ! tks

WOW! THAT is VERY strange indeed, based on your post. Going to read your links to the stories. Thanks for sharing this!

Editing to add: GREAT first thread~

I drive through Williamson county everyday to work. I saw them working on a few power lines today. And i thought, "i've been seeing them working on power lines for a few weeks off and on now...."

Idk what else to add, just thought it'd be nice to have someone who has actually witnessed a little bit of this.



Ok my theory: they know the sun is getting really hot. (solar flares, cme) So they're trying to save and preserve all the power poles they can before Dec 21, 2012. (i'm expecting powergrids to be down by then) And these few poles burning now are just the beginning.

Is it possible solar flares can be isolated to one state?
A Texas sized solar flare?

Or, maybe the lines got shorted or had a power overload?

Strange.

Nice catch OP.

They'll try to blame this on power surges, vandals, or fracking.

it was a power POLE.. not poles and the pics showed a smoking converter box.
The link says it's all fixed and re-opened.
Why was this posted?

b

Lightning could do this in a hot dry environment.
I have seen powerlines get hit before. It caused a blue fireball to travel the line.

reply to post by Bspiracy


Follow OPs second link. Highly unusual for 50+ power poles to spontaneously catch fire at the same time, isn't it?

Originally posted by Bspiracy
it was a power POLE.. not poles and the pics showed a smoking converter box.
The link says it's all fixed and re-opened.
Why was this posted?

b

Your reading comprehension is astounding.

The Oncor web page showed a total of 4,253 customers without power in McLennan, Bell, Falls and Williamson counties as of 8 a.m.

Cain said crews should have power restored to those customers by mid-day.

As many as 30 power poles were burning in one area of Hill County, just off Interstate 35 at mile marker 361.

As many as 20 poles were reported burning in Bynum east of Hillsboro and and others in the Aquilla area where some customers were without power.

There were poles on fire along Highway 6 near Falls County roads 112 and 113 that had forced closure of Highway 6 and had stopped trains along an adjacent railroad line for about an hour but traffic was moving normally by about 5:45 a.m. Some limited power outages were reported in the area around Perry, just north of Marlin.

Power pole fires also were reported in at least two locations in Waco, just north of Troy, just south of the Falls County line on Interstate 35 in Bell County, near Lorena and west of Waco along U.S. Highway 84.

No way! Recently there was a big unexplained fire at an electricity pylon next to my town, as well as a big wood pile spontaneously setting alight within 12 hours but it was totally unrelated to the pylon fire due to being so far away.

www.hertsad.co.uk...

Looking on google, same thing happened within 50 miles from my town else where too around the same time!

www.thisissomerset.co.uk...

What is going on?!

Originally posted by schmae
This is my first thread and I'm a little scared so please be gentle

I don't know what to make of this and this is why I wanted to bring it before all of you very wise, well read and
experienced people !
This morning our local ran a story that seemed not too weird at all. Traffic problem in Dallas aerea due to a power pole on fire. Traffic is stopped in case the pole topples over after it's burned. Not a big deal but I like to watch the live feed on things like that out of boredom I guess.
Here's a link to that story .

www.myfoxdfw.com...

On the local news channel there is a live chat room, so it makes watching live feed a little more interesting.
I had no idea how interesting it would get. A chatter comes in and says " i wonder if this is related to the poles
burning in central Texas'' . Intrigued I go and find a link for that story. To say it's bizarre is an understatement. If I'm exaggerating, please put me in my place because this is so weird.

'''A Department of Public Safety communications officer said power poles in Hill, Falls, Bell, Williamson and McLennan counties mysteriously began bursting into flames at about 4 a.m. Thursday.

He said the fires that had been reported were burning at the tops of the poles, some involving transformers.

Various power company representatives had been dispatched to survey the damage and several fire departments were sent to douse the flames.''''
Link to second story below.

www.kwtx.com...

Now given my curious nature and from listening to many theories on this very site, I'm thinking to myself '' wow, what are the odds? '' The more I read , the more intrigued I am.

Notice in the second story, they never actually mention HOW MANY poles burned? It sounds like a lot ,but if they said the actual number ( 43, 67 maybe 130 ) wouldn't people really take interest and demand some explanations? I find it very curious they never say the exact number of poles burning. They mention
''As many as 30 power poles were burning in one area of Hill County, just off Interstate 35 at mile marker 361.

As many as 20 poles were reported burning in Bynum east of Hillsboro and and others in the Aquilla area where some customers were without power.'''
So here they've noted at least FIFTY burning poles within one small community and near one small town. Yet the report says over 5 counties, so there must be dozens more.
Also the report says ""One power company technician told a News 10 reporter near McGregor that the fires likely were caused by a build up of dust on transformers that shorted out due to low-lying fog.'''
This one is laughable. I know very , very little about electricity but I do know a lot about dust. While I could buy ONE pole spontaneously bursting into flames due to a dust buildup, there is no way I would ever imagine at least 50 + poles catching fire from dust at the same time. This is Texas. It's dusty here and we are in a drought. If this were the case, wouldn't hundreds of poles catch fire daily ? And what is with them only burning at the top ?
I spoke to a friend today about this. He mentioned the possibility of solar flares, but I am woefully uneducated in that so I cannot comment.
I'm left wondering about some type of 'different' or ' alternative' power surge that went through the entire grid, perhaps just leaving weak or older transformers susceptible to catching fire. It sounds far fetched, but I'm only guessing. It's a real head scratcher.

I welcome any comments or guesses or ideas. It's a real mystery ! tks

Well...the there is one statement that ABSOLUTELY proves that the "official story" is 100% BS. "Low lying fog" doesn't short out large sections of the power grid. If it did...then Seattle and London would still be using kerosene lamps.

Likewise, to cause a short and/or surge THAT powerful would take an ENORMOUS amount of electricity. Remember...the wood is SUPPOSED to be DAMP already due to all that "low lying fog"...so it shouldn't be very flammable...RIGHT?

Caught in their own lie.

"I can't even say career - not in my lifetime have I heard of this," said DPS Trooper D. L. Wilson.

The main theory is all the moisture from the fog helped spark an electrical fire with all the dust buildup from lack of rain. Oncor crews have seen this before.

"It's very common on a foggy day if it hadn't rained for a good while," Lynn Trout said while he fixed one of the burnt poles.

So, which is it? Once in a lifetime or very common?

Source

reply to post by deadeyedick


There has been no rain in this part of Texas in days and days and certainly not last night.
How far could it travel? There were storms 2 days ago in East Tx.

Dust doesn't surpirse me.

Here in the midwest we have squirls climbing on the transformers. Every once and a while one will get across the wrong terminals. BOOM! Louder than an M80. And the entire neighborhood goes dark. Then the power company has to change the transformer.

On the bright side they never do it a second time.

I live deep in south east Texas. No poles on fire around here, but it did rain off and on yesterday and the day before. Maybe the system in that part of the state is outdated and everybody putting up their Christmas lights has overloaded the system. Who knows?

Originally posted by Toadmund
Is it possible solar flares can be isolated to one state?
A Texas sized solar flare?

I learned something I never knew when I read the thread about states petitions to secede...

Texas has its own grid. Is that true? Like separate from the rest of the country? If so, there may be something amiss within the grid, and that's why it hasn't effected any other state.

reply to post by schmae


I have seen it melt telephone cables for a mile.
It does not have to rain to have lightning.
This has been the source for many forest fires.

reply to post by new_here


It is true, except for the westernmost part of the state. I believe their power is piped in from New Mexico. If it were the grid though I would expect reports of burning poles all over the state, and so far I haven't heard anything like that.

Solar activity is below average, so we can exclude it.

Originally posted by sajuek
No way! Recently there was a big unexplained fire at an electricity pylon next to my town, as well as a big wood pile spontaneously setting alight within 12 hours but it was totally unrelated to the pylon fire due to being so far away.

www.hertsad.co.uk...

Looking on google, same thing happened within 50 miles from my town else where too around the same time!

www.thisissomerset.co.uk...

What is going on?!

I never heard of that one! I live right near St Albans too.

of course, there's nothing to see here, carry on as normal

We're all doomed I tell ya, doooomed.