Awesome Electrical Fire Footage from Russia

[dexters_lab]

i believe this is from Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Anyone have any idea what might have caused this?

Looks like they were going through checking things and then they throw a switch... boom!

nothing much happens until 8:50

[MK14]

Thanks, I like that video!

Using google translate, I managed to learn a little bit more.

They are making a joke (but being truthful). Saying that the official information is saying/going-to-say that it was planned and went according to plans, and is 100% fine! (something like that, anyway).

The safety? systems, should have shut it down, they DIDN'T (or not quickly enough), for some reason.

They are describing possible faults, which could have caused it, such as the load not being connected and other stuff.

[CJay]

i believe this is from Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Anyone have any idea what might have caused this?

Looks like they were going through checking things and then they throw a switch... boom!

nothing much happens until 8:50

Throwing snow on an electrical fire?

Doesn't seem the most sensible way to cool it all down...

[Ice-Tea]

Guessing the bloke with the visor was quite happy he put it down before tossing the switch...

[AF6LJ]

In a word...
Oh SHIT!..

[KSP]

That certainly was an awesome electrical fire!

Lucky neither of them got hurt really

[Dora]

Throwing snow on an electrical fire?

Doesn't seem the most sensible way to cool it all down...

Power was already switched off.
Snow is free and plenty and the extinguisher is small and probably would not be enough to put fire out in several different spots anyway

[Gyro]

Glad it wasn't another of those horrendous arc flash videos!

I assume those were contactors in those mesh door cabinets at the top - lined up with the vents in the front doors.

Lucky there was plenty of snow around, it took ages for the guy with the little extinguisher to turn up. At least they didn't need to waste it! 

[wraper]

As I understand, they were supposed to switch the transformers so some repair work could be done on one.
Seems that he turned off the wrong switch at 8:15, and when he turned the next switch - BOOM.
Also is said that in some official document mentioned: because the switch was frozen, some ceramic insulator broke during the switching. Protection failed to shut down the system because of the relay with a factory defect.

[wraper]

The man who is filming complains that the old man shouldn't do this, and if his computer or fridge burns down, what he is going to do? The old man says that he f..cked his fridge, and continues doing his stuff...
Just before the shit happens, he asks to smile into the camera 

[AlxDroidDev]

This is how to react in a situation like this:
1) Extinguish fire
2) Change your pants and underwear before anyone notices

[botcrusher]

Man electricity is scary $%&# sometimes. How much power was going through that box?

[SeanB]

Man electricity is scary $%&# sometimes. How much power was going through that box?

Probably 33kV, looks like either a small distribution yard or a factory tap off the local grid. Current would be 1kA maximum on those cables, though likely it was closer to 3kA during this fault, at least until the supply side overcurrent trip finally noticed the off scale high for long enough. They either closed a link line into an earthed state ( you do this so a line can safely be worked on, due to the possibility of induced voltage from other close wires or an accidental switching of power into it) or shorted the incoming feeder instead of the outgoing feeder from a switch after doing the changeover to the alternate transformer to ensure an uninterrupted supply.

The going by the books, and the checking off says they followed a good training regime, though the phone ringing after a few seconds says the load suddenly had a failure as the upstream supply tripped out. Going to take a while to fix that, you have to cut out the links to the failed side totally, enable the redundant side and turn the upstream back on, then strip out those cabinets and replace with the spare units in stores. Might take a week, as you have to truck the new stuff in from another site or grab parts from assorted depots.

[Blaffetuur]

I'm surprised that it lasted so long 

[SeanB]

I'm surprised that it lasted so long 

High voltage power lines tend to respond slowly to overcurrent, as the overload capacity is pretty high for a short period, the lines just sag down lower. Flashover tends to be self clearing, whatever ( big bird, ice buildup on an insulator, idiot trying to steal line) is causing the current spike tends to be blown apart in the flashover, so only a long period overload will pull the dashpots up out of the oil bath to close the main tripping contacts. Too fast a trip time and you have blackouts, a minor overload ( in a grid scheme this was probably barely noticed on a meter other than at the supply point) will simly result in a slight frequency shift, not a voltage drop overall.

[XOIIO]

Ooooooh pretty! That would have been awesome to experience.

I think that guy who flipped the switch might be related to photonicinduction  I'm gonna pop it!

[dexters_lab]

The going by the books, and the checking off says they followed a good training regime, though the phone ringing after a few seconds says the load suddenly had a failure as the upstream supply tripped out. Going to take a while to fix that, you have to cut out the links to the failed side totally, enable the redundant side and turn the upstream back on, then strip out those cabinets and replace with the spare units in stores. Might take a week, as you have to truck the new stuff in from another site or grab parts from assorted depots.

yea, i did smile when his mobile rang, would like a good translation of that!

[Halcyon]

Throwing snow on an electrical fire?

Doesn't seem the most sensible way to cool it all down...

Why not? Better than trying to cup water in your hands. Obviously a CO2 or Dry Chemical extinguisher wasn't close by and the cabinet itself didn't appear to have any fire suppression system. Electrical fires can be quite safely extinguished with water provided you stand far enough back and break the stream at regular intervals so the water jet doesn't act as a conductor back to the hose and into your hand.

In any case, I bet you that guy stands back and cringes every time he has to throw a big switch from now on. I know I would.

[DrGeoff]

I suspect he switched two non-synchronised generators onto the same bus.
The equipment looks really old and crusty, no interlocks or warnings and no pole interruptors, which could have been tripped to kill the arc.

He had to run through a signed-off sequence of operations to perform the task, and appears to have forgotten that switch that he changed  after the fire

[wraper]

The going by the books, and the checking off says they followed a good training regime, though the phone ringing after a few seconds says the load suddenly had a failure as the upstream supply tripped out. Going to take a while to fix that, you have to cut out the links to the failed side totally, enable the redundant side and turn the upstream back on, then strip out those cabinets and replace with the spare units in stores. Might take a week, as you have to truck the new stuff in from another site or grab parts from assorted depots.

yea, i did smile when his mobile rang, would like a good translation of that!

He first made a call to say about the fuck-up and said there is a fire on TSN-1 and they must disconnect it. Later there was a call back, about how it's going. He said he extinguished the fire and no firefighters needed. The funny fact is that the whole time not a single swear word was said.

[AntiProtonBoy]

That's a lot of juice. I love watching high power arcs and fires.

[SL4P]

That noise is fantastic!

[TerraHertz]

The funny fact is that the whole time not a single swear word was said.

That's *amazing*.

[rsjsouza]

That was a good video; as SeanB mentioned, they were really following good practice. What a day for these two...

I found particularly handy to have good fire extinguishing material so close by (snow)...

Also, thanks wraper do to some translations for us.

[SeanB]

Not doing it daily, then print out the instructions, and have 2 there so the actions are called out, then read back to confirm the operation. Doing it daily you would still have the instructions there, and read them out and not have the confirmation other than done.

Bad is not having the instructions and doing it.

The old adage of the SR71 not being flight ready until the mass of the paperwork is greater than the mass of the plane applies.