Ok, so my colleague, Josh Grossberg, really took some nasty hits on Sunday in the user comments below his story "Bird on power line gets blame for RPV wildfire." Some people just don't believe a bird could have done this.
HappyPerson, for example, wrote:
"This article was written by Josh Grossberg who is a moron to have the headline say a bird caused this fire. Geez, doesn't the Breeze have anyone other than bird brains working on the weekends?"
Now, I don't want to pass judgment on my colleagues who work weekends, but this is the newspaper business and anybody still working in it on any given day might be considered a "bird brain."
Anyway, I wouldn't call Josh a moron either. He can be a bit like an eccentric uncle, but if you've read the South Bay Pets blog, you know he loves animals more than anybody. He's not going to just blame a bird for something without good reason.
(And, by the way, Josh has the same degree from the same college as me, so if he's a moron, so am I. I won't tell you which college, so not to embarrass our professors.)
Earlier today, I received a call from a guy complaining that the fire bird was getting a bad rap. I recognized immediately that the caller was that Torrance guy who had hundreds of pigeons, both dead and alive, in his house a couple years ago. Animal control and police were all over that guy's house. I was out there too.
Well, today he got transferred to me. He doesn't believe the folks at Southern California Edison on this. (and he's still angry about my coverage of his pigeon coop.)
I called SCE and the bottom line is this: Blame the bird.
"I can confirm to you that the fire Saturday was related to a bird getting into overhead
conductors," SCE spokesman Steve Conroy said.
The bird, Conroy said, somehow became entangled in the wires, causing the lines to flash. That generated sparks that hit the ground. Result=fire.
Hey, it happens. We found these similar instances on the Internets:
"Friday's outage occurred around 5:40 p.m. when a Georgia Power transformer failed, cutting off electricity to part of the CDC campus. Skinner said the backup generators came on initially but then experienced some sort of problem and shut down.
The power was out for about 1 hour 15 minutes, Skinner said, and was restored when Georgia Power fixed the transformer problem.
Jeff Wilson, a spokesman for the utility, said the Georgia Power transformer failure was caused by a bird."
And this one:
Power outage in Fremont caused by bird
10:19 AM PST on Monday, November 3, 2008
By KING5.com Staff
SEATTLE - Seattle City Light says a bird caused a power outage that affected about 4,000 customers in the Fremont and Wallingford neighborhoods Monday morning.
Crews discovered that a large bird had shorted a main feeder line, causing a circuit breaker to trip. The line was put back into service about 9:45 a.m.
So there you go. Don't blame Josh. Blame the bird, who unfortunately can't speak up for himself.
As Catwoman said in her user comment Sunday: "Poor bird."
As Catwoman said in her user comment Sunday: "Poor bird."
the problem is not the bird .It is the WIRE all the electric wires cause fire and death and no one figures out the incredible cost yearly....from down power lines waisting hundreds of people time(is money).
Let them bury the wires !