Jackson County REMC educates students about electrical safety

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BROWNSTOWN

Three, two, one.

Students expected something to happen when Travis Mull led a countdown and pushed a button, but they didn’t see, hear or smell anything.

That’s because looking at a power line, a person can’t tell if there’s electricity going through it.

Mull, who works for Jackson County REMC, said that’s what makes electricity so dangerous.

“If there’s a power line lying in the road, lying in your yard and you walk up to it, can you look at it and say, ‘Yep, that’s got electricity in it’ or ‘Nope, it doesn’t?’ You don’t have any way to know, do you?” he told Brownstown Elementary School third-graders during a recent electrical safety presentation.

If someone sees a downed power line, Mull said they should stop. It could be “hot,” meaning it has electricity in it.

“That power line is hot. I don’t want to get anywhere near it,” he said.

Mull then pushed a button, and a bright light came on at the end of the Live Line Demo display set up in the school’s cafeteria. That let the students know there was electricity flowing through the power lines — 7,200 volts to be exact.

“The only way that I know if I’m going to go work on that power line if it’s got electricity in it is to test it,” Mull said.

Jackson County REMC employee Brian Covert then showed how linemen use a tester.

“I’ve been this close to a power line and can’t tell if it has electricity in it,” Mull said while putting his hand near his face, “and I need to know.”

Before he moved further into the presentation, Mull shared the meaning of three words: Conductor, insulator and volt.

A conductor is something that electricity can go through, an insulator is something that does not easily allow electricity to pass through it and volt is a measure of how much electricity there is.

Mull said a plug-in in a home has 110 volts.

“That’s enough volts to hurt you really bad or kill you if you stick a key or your finger or something metal in those — very serious,” he said.

When he pushes the button on the Live Line Demo, the power line has 7,200 volts in it.

“That’s the same amount of volts as one of the real power lines outside,” Mull said. “That’s enough volts to really do some damage.”

Electricity travels at the speed of light, which is nearly 671 million miles per hour, and scientists say it can be more than 30,000 degrees, making it four times hotter than the surface of the sun, Mull said.

“Electricity can make five laps around the whole Earth in one second,” he said.

Next, it was time to demonstrate what happens to different types of conductors and insulators when they come in contact with live power lines.

The first was a ladder. Mull gave an example of Covert carrying a ladder through a yard and accidentally hitting a power line.

“If Brian would have looked up and saw that electricity jump on his ladder, would he be fast enough to let go of the ladder?” Mull asked.

“Electricity wants to do one thing: It wants to go to the ground. That’s all it wants to do,” he said. “Electricity is running back and forth (in a power line). It’s looking for a way to get to the ground, and when Brian brought that metal ladder up and touched the power line, it said, ‘Aha’ and made it to the ground.”

The ladder and a television antenna both created flames when they came into contact with the live power line, resulting in the students exclaiming “Whoa!”

“If you have a television antenna at your house and need to take it down, please call the electric company to help take it down to make sure you don’t drop it on your power lines,” Mull said.

“You have to be really careful. You have to really watch where you’re at,” he said. “You need to always be looking up when you’re moving metal things around in your yard or when you’re moving metal around everywhere.”

The students were even more awestruck when they saw a kite or a balloon hitting a power line can catch on fire.

That can turn a fun activity, like flying a kite or releasing balloons, into a dangerous situation.

“Always look up to see where your power lines are,” Mull said.

Sometimes, power lines run through trees, and Mull said people shouldn’t trim the limbs themselves.

“Trees are very good conductors because they have water inside of them,” he said. “They conduct electricity really good, so if you have trees in your backyard and they are going through power lines … call your power company to come trim them.”

Vehicles hitting utility poles also can create a dangerous situation. If the electric lines break, they may come in contact with the vehicle or the ground.

So what should the people inside the vehicle do if they see wires? Mull said to first call 911 to report the wreck and ask them to call the electric company.

If the vehicle catches fire, there’s only one way to safely get out of the car. That’s to bunny-hop, or jump with both feet at the same time, because otherwise, a person coming into contact with the electricity could have it go through their body.

“We can’t be touching the car and the ground at the same time,” Mull said.

The person should open the car door, look around to make sure there are no wires and then bunny-hop as far away from the vehicle as possible. Mull had third-graders James Knight and Khloe McFarlane demonstrate how to do that.

After the program, both students said learning about electrical safety makes them appreciate linemen and the work that they do.

Mull and Covert then switched gears to show what electricity could do to the human body.

They had hot dogs on the end of a stick to look like a person’s hand. When the hot dogs touched the live wire, they caught fire.

“Electricity, when it goes into your body, it cooks your body from the inside out,” Mull said. “It’s so hot inside your body, it cooks the inside of your body. Electricity goes into your body, and it burns and destroys the muscles and destroys the meat in your body — very, very dangerous.”

If that would have been a person’s real hand, Mull said they probably would not have survived.

“At the very least, he would have probably lost his hand. Most likely, he would have died,” Mull said. “It’s what electricity does to you. It goes inside and starts cooking from the inside out.”

That’s why linemen have to ensure they use a special type of thick rubber gloves when touching power lines. Before putting the gloves on, they have to closely and carefully inspect them.

“I want to make sure there are no holes in that glove because my life and Brian’s life depend on those gloves not having any holes in them,” Mull said.

Mull picked third-grader Isaac Cockerham to try on a pair of gloves and other lineman gear, including rubber sleeves to protect his arms and shoulders, a hardhat and special safety glasses.

Mull also educated students about an OCR and a fuse.

An OCR is a piece of equipment that’s going to turn electricity back on if something goes wrong, such as when a tree branch lands on a power line, Mull said.

“It is so smart, it can tell there’s a tree branch on that line and it shuts the electricity off just a second, and then it comes back on hoping that the tree branch has fallen away,” he said. “If it still sees that tree branch on there, it’s going to turn off again.”

Mull said animals like squirrels, birds and snakes get around power lines and sometimes touch things they shouldn’t, which knocks the electricity out. He said a fuse makes a loud noise when it blows.

Finally, Mull shared how lightning striking power lines can be dangerous.

Lightning can have 30 million volts of electricity in it, and if it comes in contact with a power line, the line can’t handle that much voltage, he said.

If a person is outside and sees lightning, the safest place to go is in a structure with a roof and four sides. If they are in a wooded or open area, it’s key to make yourself as small as possible by squatting and putting your head down so the only thing touching the ground is your feet, he said.

“Lightning looks for tall things,” he said. “Lightning is just like every other bit of electricity. It’s wanting to go to the ground. It’s wanting to go somewhere through the ground.”

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