DID SAN DIEGO’S POWERLINE UNDERGROUNDING SAVE IT FROM CATASTROPHIC WILDFIRES

Fact: Two largest catastrophic wildfires in North and South California in 2018 were caused by sparking utility lines.

Editor’s Note:  According to the following article, San Diego Gas & Electric has more than 60% of its powerlines buried underground.  PillartoPost.org daily online magazine wonders if SDG&Es foresight into undergrounding powerlines in rural areas be a big reason that there were no major wildfires in the San Diego region during 2018 when the state overall had catastrophic fires in the Chico and Orange County areas.  Just asking.  Here are three articles on undergrounding:

GUEST BLOG / By William Atkinson in the November 2018 edition of Electrical Contractor magazine--Over the years, utilities around the nation have had to deal with wildfire-related damage to their transmission and distribution lines, especially those that traverse wilderness areas. Now, there is growing evidence that, in some instances, the power lines themselves are triggering the wildfires.

In some instances, high winds can blow nearby trees and their branches into power lines, sparking fires. In other cases, wind can snap wooden distribution line poles, causing live wires to fall onto nearby dry grass, setting it on fire.

While such problems exist in a number of states, the most serious problems have occurred in California, especially over the last two years. Record-breaking wildfires have erupted as a result of the unprecedented drought the state has experienced, which has turned millions of acres of forest into tinderboxes.

In late 2017, for example, power lines owned by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) were blamed for a dozen Northern California wildfires and 18 related deaths. A report, issued by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, noted that these fires started when trees and branches came into contact with power lines. One such fire, the Redwood Fire, burned over 36,000 acres, destroyed 543 structures and resulted in nine civilian deaths. Another, the Atlas Fire, burned 52,000 acres, destroyed 783 structures, and resulted in six civilian deaths.

During the summer of 2018, the Department reported at least 17 more major wildfires that were triggered by power lines. One of these, the Thomas Fire in the southern part of the state, was triggered by Southern California Edison lines. That fire destroyed 1,000 buildings and led to a landslide that killed 22 people.

By far the worst fire in the state's history, the Camp Fire has killed at least 85 people and destroyed 14,000 homes. While the exact cause has yet to be determined, the fire did start near some PG&E transmission lines that experienced an outage just 15 minutes prior to the start of the fire.

While the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) estimates only about 10 percent of the state's wildfires are triggered by power lines, the frequency and severity of these wildfires has caused the CPUC to expand its probe into PG&E power line safety practices and even consider breaking the utility up into smaller utilities to facilitate more management accountability for power line safety.

In addition, there is a growing outcry from among many in the state for utilities to become more aggressive in burying power lines, especially transmission lines that traverse heavily forested areas. Such an effort is not cheap, of course. An article in the San Francisco Chronicle reported undergrounding of that type can cost up to $5 million a mile and that it would cost PG&E over $100 billion to underground all of its high-power lines. Besides the cost, there is concern about digging in environmentally sensitive areas.

San Diego's prime utility provider has been a leader in undergrounding powerlines
in urban and rural areas.

Still, such work is being done in parts of the state. San Diego Gas & Electric reports that 60 percent of its lines are now underground, including rural lines running through areas that are prone to wildfires. And, the utility just announced plans to begin converting another 20 miles of overhead lines to underground in a rural area with a high fire risk in its service territory.

While undergrounding is often prohibitively expensive, there is also a growing interest in having utilities insulate their power lines, making them less likely to trigger sparks and resulting fires.

In the meantime, the main focus, of course, is more aggressive right-of-way work to keep trees and branches as far away from power lines as possible.

VOICE OF SAN DIEGO

CITY TO SPEED UP UNDERGROUNDING UTILITY LINES. Click here.

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

GOV. BURIES BILL TO BURY POWER LINES TO STOP FIRESTORMS. Click here.

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A SERIOUS LOOK AT ORIGINS OF APRIL’S FOOLS DAY

CLEVER ADVERTISING: An April fool’s prank in Denmark, regarding Copenhagen's new subway made it look as if one of its cars had an accident, and had broken through and surfaced on the square in front of the town hall. In reality, it was a retired subway car from the subway of Stockholm cut obliquely, with the front end placed onto the tiling and loose tiles scattered around it. Note the sign "Gevalia" and the accident site tape with the words "Uventede gæster?" (unexpected guests?). The stunt was part of Gevalia coffee's advertising campaign in 2001, which featured various vehicles popping up at unexpected sites. –Wikipedia.

GUEST BLOG / By the Editors of Snopes.com--April Fools' Day began in the 1500s when the Gregorian calendar took over from the Julian. Those who forgot the change and attempted to celebrate New Year's (previously celebrated on the 1st of April) on the wrong date were teased as "April fools."

It has become tradition on the first of April to pull jokes of the harmless variety on those near and dear to us. We plot and we scheme, and often the yuks are funnier in our imaginings than how they play out in reality, but that doesn’t stop us from sending the little kid in us out on a rampage. Even the most staid among us have been known to indulge in a practical joke or two, so beware of trusting anyone on that day.

How the custom of pranking on April 1 came about remains shrouded in mystery.

When the western world employed the Julian calendar, years began on March 25. Festivals marking the start of the New Year were celebrated on the first day of April because March 25 fell during Holy Week. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar during the 1500s moved the New Year to January 1. According to the most widely-believed origin postulated for April Fools’ Day, those who could be tricked into believing April 1 was still the proper day to celebrate the New Year earned the sobriquet of April fools. To this end, French peasants would unexpectedly drop in on neighbors on that day in a effort to confuse them into thinking they were receiving a New Year’s call. Out of that one jape supposedly grew the tradition of testing the patience of family and friends.

But that’s only one theory. Others are:

The timing of this day of pranks seems to be related to the arrival of spring, when nature “fools” mankind with fickle weather, according to the Encyclopedia of Religion and the Encyclopedia Britannica.

The Country Diary of Garden Lore, which chronicles the goings-on in an English garden, says that April Fools’ Day “is thought to commemorate the fruitless mission of the rook (the European crow), who was sent out in search of land from Noah’s flood-encircled ark.”

Others theorize it may have something to do with the Vernal Equinox.

Some think to tie in with the Romans’ end-of-winter celebration, Hilaria, and the end of the Celtic new year festival.

BRITS LOVE THIS DAY. On April 1, 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to "see the Lions washed." The gag was revived in 1857 when a very official looking ticket to "Washing the Lions" at the Tower of London was circulated in London. Spoiler alert: No such event ever took place.

Wherever and whenever the custom began, it has since evolved its own lore and set of unofficial rules. Superstition has it that the pranking period expires at noon on the 1st of April and any jokes attempted after that time will call bad luck down onto the head of the perpetrator. Additionally, those who fail to respond with good humor to tricks played upon them are said to attract bad luck to themselves.

Not all superstitions about the day are negative, though — fellas fooled by a pretty girl are said to be fated to end up married to her, or at least enjoy a healthy friendship with the lass.

In Scotland, an April fool is called an April “gowk” — Scottish for cuckoo, an emblem of simpletons. In England, a fool is called a gob, gawby or gobby. In France, the victim of a hoax is called a “poisson d’avril,” an April fish. (“April fish” refers to a young fish, thus one easily caught.) The French delight in shouting “Poisson d’Avril!” at the denouement of the foolery. Some also insist all such pranks include a fish or at least a vague reference to same within the joke. Asking someone during a phone conversation to hold the line, then later returning to the call and inquiring of the victim if there’d been any bites is a popular groaner. So are pranks which trick the victim into placing calls to fish shops or the local aquarium.

Poisson d'avril gets guffaws in France

The media can’t resist getting into the act. Radio personalities are especially drawn to creating playful hoaxes. The year Canada introduced a two-dollar coin, pranksters from CHEZ FM fooled listeners into believing April 1 was the last day the treasury would honor all the two-dollar bills still in circulation. Local banks and the Royal Canadian Mint fielded call after call from concerned citizens. That same year, other radio pranksters had people going through their pocket change in search of the elusive two-dollar coins which had mistakenly been minted from real gold.

It’s not just the DJs who give into the urge to prank on April Fools’. Canadian Member of Parliament Sheila Copps was responsible for a particularly creative leg-pull in 1996. On the respected news show CBO Morning, she announced that the clock in Ottawa’s Peace Tower was being switched over to digital.

BBC'S 1957 on air Spaghetti tree hoax fooled way too many people.

Arguably the best media-generated April fools’ joke dates from a Richard Dimbleby “news report” aired on 1 April 1957 on BBC’s Panorama. It opened with a line about Spring coming early that year, prompting the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland to be early, too.

Against a video backdrop of happy peasant women harvesting spaghetti from trees, whimsical claims about the foodstuff’s cultivation were made in a straightfaced manner. Spaghetti’s oddly uniform length was explained as the result of years of dedicated cultivation. The ravenous spaghetti weevil which had wreaked havoc with harvests of years past had been conquered, said the report.

More than 250 viewers jammed the BBC switchboard after the hoax aired, most of them calling in with serious inquiries about the piece — where could they go to watch the harvesting operation? Could they buy spaghetti plants themselves? (For those anxious to try their hand at homegrown pasta, Panorama producer Michael Peacock offered this helpful hint: “Many British enthusiasts have had admirable results from planting a small tin of spaghetti in tomato sauce.”)

"Crap, is it April Fool's Day already?  Tell them Mr. Lyon isn't taking any calls..."

Although adults get into the spirit of things (ask any zoo worker about manning the phones on April 1 and having to field endless calls for Mr. Lyon, Guy Rilla, and Albert Ross), it’s the children that seem to truly celebrate the day with wild abandon. April Fools’ pranking between students and teachers is an ongoing battle of wits, with kids favoring the timeworn standards of a tack on the chair, the “missing class” (kids hide under their desks when the teacher is momentarily called out of the room), or a springy fabric snake coiled in a can of nuts. Not every teacher fights back, but those who do are often inventive about it. For more than 20 years, one grade school teacher in Boston comes in early on that day to write the day’s assignment upside down on the blackboard. When her curious students arrive, she tells them she did it by standing on the ceiling.

The style of April Fools’ pranks has changed over the years. Sending the unsuspecting on pointless errands was an especially prized practical joke in those earlier post-Julian days. In modern times, that form of pranking has shifted away from April Fools’ merriment and seemingly become a rite of initiation into many groups, both formal and informal. New campers are routinely sent on a mission to retrieve the left-handed smoke shifter from its last borrower by more experienced campers who then quietly guffaw to themselves as the tenderfoot wanders about in vain on his quest. Others are often roped in to add to the hilarity, with each person the newcomer asks pointing him in towards yet someone else who will further the joke. Rookie pilots are sent in search of a bucket of prop wash, and new carnies sent on wild goose chases for the elusive keys to the fairgrounds.

Current tastes seem to run more to funny phone calls and media-driven extravaganzas. But it’s still okay to reach back to older times for inspiration. Be a traditionalist — on April 1 send a co-worker to fetch a tube of elbow grease or 50 feet of shoreline.

SOURCES:

    Hayes, Karen.   “At School, A Free Pass to Fool Around.”

    The Boston Globe.   28 March 1998   (South Weekly; p. 1).

    Knowsley Jo.   “Zoo Warns: Don’t Monkey with Us.”

    Sunday Telegraph.   29 March 1998   (p. 1).

    Lee, Thonnia.   “Be Careful, Pranksters.”

    The Atlanta Journal and Constitution.   1 April 1992   (p. C3).

    Pickering, David.   Dictionary of Superstitions.

    London: Cassell, 1995.   ISBN 0-304-345350   (pp. 10-11).

    Rupert, Jake.   “Radio Jokers Confuse Listeners, Upset Officials.”

    The Ottawa Citizen.   2 April 1996   (p. B3).

    Switzer, John.   “Who Started All This April Foolishness?”

    The Columbus Dispatch.   1 April 1998   (p. B8).

    Tuleja, Tad.   Curious Customs.

    New York: Harmony Books, 1987.   ISBN 0-517-56654-0.

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