safety first Posts

Cutting trees near power lines CAN BE FATAL

Cutting trees near power lines CAN BE FATAL

On Saturday, February 25, 2017, customers in Baie Verte and and surrounding areas experienced an outage as a result of a tree falling into a transmission line. This caused loss of power to our entire Seal Cove Substation, leaving approximately 1,000 customers without power for about 3.5 hours. The tree made contact with the energized line as a result of an individual cutting trees around his cabin.

This incident could have resulted in severe injury or even death for the individual cutting the trees as well as anyone who may have been in close proximity. It is also an extremely dangerous situation for our employees who must visit the site to make repairs. Our first concern is, and always will be, the safety of our employees, customers, contractors and the public.

We’re only two months into 2017 and we’ve already had three incidents involving individuals cutting trees that have fallen into power lines.

Trimming trees around power lines should only be attempted by trained professionals. Serious injuries and even fatalities have occurred when untrained individuals attempt to do this work themselves. Each tree trimmer working for Newfoundland Power is an experienced, trained professional. Tree trimming is carried out in the immediate vicinity of energized high voltage power lines and only by qualified personnel.

Please don’t take your safety or the safety of others for granted. Visit http://www.newfoundlandpower.com/ElectricalSafety/AtHome/TreeTrimming.aspx for more information about cutting or trimming trees near power lines.

Think Safe. Live Safe.