Burning Powerline, originally uploaded by Aldon.

Back in January during an ice storm, a branch came down on the power lines near our house and we had a Powerline fire. We ended up being without power for about eight hours and had some concerns about the responsiveness of the emergency services here in Woodbridge.

This afternoon, we had more heavy storms. In this case, there were tornado warnings that never amounted to much other than some heavy rain. After the rain died down, I did my regular Sunday evening Internet Radio Show with my daughter. Towards the end of the show, I heard a loud explosion and saw a bright flash outside my office window. It was very similar to the explosion I heard back in January, but we did not lose power.

So, after the show ended, I walked down the driveway and onto the service road to check out the power line poles. Sure enough, the second pole in on the service road had a small little fire on top of the pole. Given how small the fire was and how wet everything around was, I expected that the fire would go out fairly quickly, but I felt it was better to be safe than sorry, so I ran back up to the house and called 911.

Perhaps they remembered the event of January as well as I did, so they asked for extensive details and were at the house very quickly. Yet even by then, the fire had in fact gone out. A police officer and a couple firemen looked at the pole and determined all was okay. The officer told me he would call United Illuminating to report the problem.

The service road is heavily wooded and often overlooked. It was good that the police and firemen looked checked out the service road and that they will follow up with UI. It seems as if the power lines are not properly maintained around here and these problems are likely to recur. At least it is good to know that the local police and fire departments are better aware of the problem and its location now.