The Peril of Water and Wire
Electrical engineer A.L. Kasson warns that firefighters face a hidden danger when spraying water on high-voltage power lines during city fires.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
One of the greatest obstacles to the prompt extinction of fires is the danger that the firemen may receive a shock through striking an electric wire with the stream of water they are throwing. This danger is all the greater with salt water, as it is a much better conductor than fresh water. The knowledge of this danger has a tendency to make the firemen timid about working where the street is covered with a network of wires. A. L. Kasson, the electrical engineer, said yesterday: 'The really serious danger comes from electric light wires carrying currents of the higher potentials. The currents which it is necessary to guard against, therefore, are the high potentials on electric light wires, which are the arc light circuits and the primary wires on alternating circuits. It would be an easy thing to arrange these wires so that, in case of necessity, they could be killed in any section of a few blocks at a moment's notice.' These switches could be placed in boxes at convenient points, with keys for the electric light company, the electrician, and the chief of the fire department.
“The knowledge of this danger has a tendency to make the firemen timid about working where the street is covered with a network of wires.”
As Seattle electrified at the turn of the century, the danger of mixing water with high-voltage city infrastructure was a real fear for early public safety crews. This intersection of urban density and dangerous modern technology remains a challenge for city planners today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.