20,000 volts

Friday morning, I was in the pasture with my 7th/8th grade class as we continued our study of the leaf cutter ant colony. Some of us heard a strange noise, almost as if a huge hummingbird hovered overhead vibrating its wings creating its 'humming' sound. We continued our search to discover smoke coming from the top of a cypress tree and realized that it was the electrical line creating the noise. I had heard a slight buzzing from the electrical lines in the past, but this was different. Then, it looked like something from a low grade Japanese godzilla movie- flame, fire el fuego at the top of the tree!

This event could have been just a sight to behold and a simple call to the electric company, but the tree is directly adjacent to our house with branches overhanging, but not touching the roof. "Call ICE!" a student exclaims, as I am already heading toward the house to direct the boys away from tree. After several minutes, the flames and smoke were gone, the humming stopped, my students were still in the pasture and ICE, the local utility was on its way.

I walked my class back to school, ran home, purchased banana bread, 'pan de banana' from Pepito and welcomed the utility guys as they peered into the tree. Immediately they shook their heads explaining that they could not do a thing about it today while emphasizing, no toca el arbol, do not touch the tree. These two uninsulated lines that run through the tree are part of the main power grid carrying 20,000 volts. One line is positive, the other neutral and when the tree is touching both lines, the result is a short circuit, smoke, flames and 20,000 volts of electricity in the tree itself. "Muy peligroso, but don't worry about the flames, the tree is too moist to catch on fire," Jeffrey explains "and the ground and house below is also safe from electrical shock or fire." Solution: They need to notify businesses prior to shutting down the power grid, drive a cherry picker from another town and trim branches away from the lines. Hopefully, they can take care of this monday. Fortunately, I think the tree growth near the power lines has burned away and we have not had any more short circuiting since Friday morning. Meanwhile, the boys have a respectful awareness of the tree, and ride the bike on the open grass in front of the house.

We are all safe and sound. Signed M.