CE electricians deliver power with brawn, brain

For the 796th Civil Engineer Squadron electricians, it takes more than flipping a switch to fix power outages. 

Outages are common occurrences, but when you’re responsible for an area covering more than 1,400 miles of power lines and with a crew of only five to seven people, it can be a Herculean task.

“It’s massive miles of range and if you’re not familiar with it, it’s easy to get lost,” said Michael Bass, exterior electric foreman for the squadron.

The electricians are responsible for maintaining the power that runs the base, three airfields including one at Duke Field and the entire Eglin range.

There are interior and exterior electricians. It’s the exterior electricians who handle the electric poles and underground lines for Eglin’s immense area.

“It takes guys at least three to five years to remember where everything is on Eglin,” said Bass.

Before internalizing the lay of the land, exterior electricians go through years of training to handle high voltage materials. The minimum experience required for exterior electricians is seven years, because when working with high voltage power lines the risk is greater.

“With higher voltage, the electricity will jump a lot further and they can easily get hurt,” said Bass.

Electricity ‘jumps’ when a power source looks for a place ground itself. The higher the voltage, the farther electricity can jump. A person doesn’t need to touch something to be at risk. They can merely be close by.

Jumps often happen with electrical outages. In order for CE electricians to find the origins of the outage they have to follow possibly miles of power lines to get to the problem.

“We look at our power grids and we can tell where outages are most of the time, but if you have a jump in power, you have to follow it,” said Bass. “It may lead into a creek, which means you will need to double back and start again. Can you imagine driving in the middle of the woods at night trying to find a burned circuit caused by high winds, a fallen tree, an iced limb or even a squirrel?”

Once the problem is found, then the real work begins.

“We have to prune,” said Bass. “We have pruners, but they can’t work around high voltage”

Because of the high voltage, electricians are responsible for pruning 17.5 feet on either side of the power lines.

“What people don’t understand is that when a limb touches a power line, it sends a voltage to the root of that tree, so if someone comes in contact with that tree, it becomes energized and can possibly electrocute them,” said Bass.

Jumps, pruning, electric pole repair are standard occurrences, but sometimes the mission can become intense. During the January ice storm, the workers faced a tough night of fire and ice.

“It was an inch of ice on the limbs,” said Bass. “The limbs began to touch the lines and then the lines would burn the ice and start a fire.”

The line fires would then cause circuits to catch fire leading to a larger blaze.

Robert Angrisani, a CE Electronic Digital Computer mechanic embedded with the electricians during the ice storm witnessed the events.

“They were performing their job in the dark with only flashlights in the sleet and the wind. They used chain saws to cut trees that were arcing into power lines that had enough voltage to turn tree limbs into cigars,” he said.

The dangers are fleeting, but real and serious.

“Long ago we used to work ‘hot’,” said Bass, referring to working with live wires. “But we had young Airmen getting hurt. We’ve since stopped; our regulations require it, but we have young and experienced hires from all different bases and it’s always an eye-opener.”

When new electricians arrive at Eglin they are prepared for any eventuality, even quirks like power outages because of squirrels.

“It’s an everyday thing with squirrels,” said Bass. “A squirrel will crawl up a tree and stand on a conductor. The [circuit] breaker will open to prevent an electric current from flowing. It will do this for 30 seconds to a minute until the threat [the squirrel] is gone. Sometimes the breakers don’t work, so the electricity is looking for a ground, when the squirrel touches it, the circuit completes and blows him up.”

Whatever the issue, be it ice, wind, tree limbs or squirrels, the 796th exterior electricians are always ready at a moment’s notice with no complaints.

“They never question the seven plus hours in the sleet, wind and freezing temp,” said Angrisani. “That’s just the life of an electrician.

Article by Minty Knighton
Team Eglin Public Affairs

Photo: The 796th Civil Engineer Squadron electricians are responsible for more than 1,400 miles of power lines and maintaining power for Eglin Air Force Base, three airfields and the entire range complex. (Courtesy photo)