Metallic Balloons Can Be Dangerous

Southern California Edison is blaming metallic balloons for an incident that could have been disastrous.

No one was injured during the June 7 event in which a live, overhead power line snapped and swung into a resident’s backyard in the 200 block of Obispo Avenue.

At about 8:50 p.m. a loud bang rattled residents in the quaint neighborhood as a white light – similar to a lightning flash – accompanied the explosion and lit up the night sky.

Street lamps and house lights turned off all around following the blast and then switched on momentarily before quickly going back off. The on/off pattern repeated a few times before the power stayed off.

A reporter ran to the Broadway/Obispo location to see what happened. An orange glow came from where a 1968 Airstream trailer was parked in the rear yard alongside the house. A fire was reported to 911.

Crowds started forming in the street.

The power line landed atop the vintage vehicle and some feared a propane or gas tank could blow up. People shouted for onlookers to get away from the camper during the chaotic first minutes.

A moderate fire snuffed out after burning the trailer’s top and side and melting its tires. Burnt rubber could be smelled a block around. Fire crews taped off the residence.

SCE technicians worked on the situation and snipped-off the dangling wire.

A high-powered flashlight revealed a clean cut where the wire gave way and metallic balloons – often called by the brand name Mylar – were not observed on the remaining lines.

Later Edison workers determined metallic balloons caused the problem.

In an online SCE article dated June 7, 2017, the utility company warns that June “is traditionally the peak month for power outages caused by metallic balloons. This is almost certainly because of releases during its celebrations, notably graduations, weddings and Father’s Day.”

The report continues, “There is nothing to celebrate, however, for the hundreds of thousands of people and businesses affected annually when the released balloons subsequently end up in power lines.”

SCE has experienced an average of 132 balloon outages each June for the last five years. May follows with an average of 112 outages, the article states.

There were 135 balloon outages last June with an SCE all-time high of 942 for the entire year, topping the 924 in 2015, according to SCE.

2,502 hours of power were lost in 2016 due to balloon outages with 1.2 million customers impacted, according to SCE.

The balloons can do more than knock out power.

“More hazardously, the balloons can explode in power lines and bring them down (which happened 111 times last year), potentially leading to serious injuries and property damage,” the article informs.

Stay away from downed power lines.

An SCE graphic says to always tie a weight to metallic balloons, which California law requires. Balloon owners should never remove the weight and never release the balloons outside. When putting the balloons in the garbage, puncture them to ensure they don’t float away.

SCE spokeswoman Mary Ann Milbourn said 14,421 customers lost power in the 8:50 Obispo evening outage. 6,700 customers had power restored by 9:09. But all customers were not restored until 3:20 a.m. the following morning, she said, as a fallen wire takes longer to address.

“The cause was metallic balloons being tangled in overhead electrical equipment,” she said of the crew’s finding.

“Because they have metal on them, they can conduct the electricity,” Milbourn said. “So when they hit the lines, there can be a sudden surge of power, which can blow out a transformer, or it can be so hot it can actually melt the power line and that’s often how we get lines down.”

Another outage occurred at 1:34 p.m. and lasted for about a half hour. Those boundaries were E. 16th Street, Park Avenue, E. Vermont Street and Rose Avenue.

“What happened is a squirrel came in contact with equipment at one of our substations,” Milbourn said. “And when that happens, we often have a short. And we ended up with an outage that left 14,076 customers without power. All power was restored at 2:09.”

Regarding power failures in general, Milbourn explained: “We have lots of different ways that our power can go out. It’s not always equipment failure on our part. Third-party problems like balloons, cars hitting poles, people digging holes and hitting electrical equipment; just under 20 percent of our outages are due to those kinds of third-party issues.”

Cities and housing tracts built after 1970 generally have the electrical lines underground, which looks neater. However, most of Long Beach displays the old-fashioned overhead wiring.

It would take a lot of money to put existing overhead wires underground.

“Typically we prefer overhead lines,” Milbourn said. “They tend to be safer, they’re easier for us to service if there’s a problem because if you have something underground, you’ve got to figure out where it is underground and then you’ve got to get to it.”

Placing overhead lines underground is a complex process and usually the city or property owner has to pay for it. In small cases, a city can use funds earmarked for such projects.

Milbourn explained, “Generally, the CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission) allows Edison to set aside a certain amount of money to be used for undergrounding throughout its territory every year and that money is earmarked for all the cities and county areas.

“Essentially either the city or county or a property owner can request that their lines be undergrounded and there’s a whole process where they’ve got to determine if it’s suitable … and then they have to go through approvals, usually through the local jurisdiction and typically this has to be paid for by the city and/or the property owners.

“The money that’s earmarked for the cities, that’s a relatively small number of projects and there are very strict parameters as to what qualifies for that funding.”

Milbourn said there’s a high demand for the funds.

“It’s usually up to the city to identify the area and then we work with them to determine if it’s a suitable location for undergrounding,” she said. “In that case SCE would cover the cost, but in most cases that’s not the situation and it has to paid for by the city and property owners who want the lines undergrounded.”

For a cleaner appearance, wires are placed underground during construction of planned communities nowadays and the cost is added into the price of the homes.

kirt@beachcomber.news