Cutting a high-voltage power line - video

[metric_taper]

This really did occur. I watched it Tuesday morning on ABC news.
This was taken from a police car dash camera. Manchester New Jersey.
The camera exposure is affected by the brightness of the arc flash.

[Frank S]

This really did occur. I watched it Tuesday morning on ABC news.
This was taken from a police car dash camera. Manchester New Jersey.
The camera exposure is affected by the brightness of the arc flash.

Ok I think I saw a transformer flash a couple of times You are probably right it did look insulated at least if the black color had anything to do with it. If it broke from the secondary side of the transformer it would only have been energized by being back fed from where ever it went to down line. The transformer could have had dozens or shorted coils inside and possibly instead of sending 120 or to 240 single line voltage it may have sent a couple 1000 colts to the switchgear panel or what ever it was connected to. and being shorted the fuses may not have blown for some reason or they could have charred and not fell out of connection. it might not have been until the fault reached the substation that the power finally went off.
Electricity can be funny in the way it finds away, almost as if it has a self preservation to life at times.
A line man showed me some pictures of a pair of 35/50 transformers sharing a pole with another pair, both had their tops blown completely off yet somehow the secondary's were still energized for a while.