noderaser:

Yes indeed, that is correct. According to the comments from the person who posted the video, the situation was allowed to continue unabated for several hours.

I hope that someone who sees the video and was perhaps either there or working for the POCO at the time can offer up some sort of explanation for the length of time this was allowed to continue.

To quote Rodalco's post:

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I'm amazed that the utility crew did not contact the POCO control room via cellphone or RT and told them to drop the feeder concerned, cut away the fault and reliven the healthy section.
and

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This is definitely a faillure of the Earth fault protection relay on the HV supply.


But I wonder if here in the US, the POCOs use earth fault relaying?

No matter what, I agree the POCO was unacceptably negligent in this case.

But this thought is kinda scary too:

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Understanding that their response may not be quick enough to save life/property, the fire department supervisors have been provided with hotsticks and the necessary training to open the cutouts if necessary.


Wow. Given the possibly long interval between training and having to open a cutout under fault conditions, I wonder how wise that really is....