Electrician who fights fires

How anticlimactic.

I was kinnda expecting the electricity to pass through the water and zap him. I guess I don’t know how electricity work though.

It’s actually pretty hard for the electricity to do that as the water breaks up into individual droplets. And the air between is a pretty good insulator.

Mythbusters covered this with peeing on the third rail myth.

Literally the only correct answer in this thread

So that guy actually is a genius and knows his physics?

And most filtered water is not a good enough conductor of electricity to be dangerous in the first place. Adding salt or other ionizing minerals to water makes it much better at conducting, but your regular tap water is not too great at it

Does this picture make you think they are using filtered water? Seeing that rat’s nest of wires makes me doubt the cleanliness of the water.

The fact that it’s clear, and isn’t saltwater is enough to draw the conclusion that its not going to be very conductive

yeah, no shit Sherlock.

Also, even if there was a continuous stream water itself is not a great conductor. Maybe if he had a stream of salt water he’d need to be concerned.

Thanks, that makes sense

Also how electric shower heads work

the bottom ones are communications cables, phones, internet etc.

He’s holding a hose that is not electrically conducting.

I thought he was capping the end to squirt the water higher.

He was

With a high enough voltage, any insulator will become a conductor.

I bet having buses pass through you is far worse. My dad used to be a bus conductor.

I wonder what it’s like to conduct an orchestra. The cello probably requires a bit of prep first.

LOL fair point.

The wires he was hosing looked to be mostly 230V with something like 11kV on the 3 bare conductors above it. So, it’s not too high a voltage in the grand scheme of things.

Yeah, but do you *really* want to be the guy spraying live electrical lines overhead with water? At a basic level, self preservation should come into play here. That guy doesn’t know kV or insulating rubber hoses.

Actually, I have been the guy spraying live electrical circuits with water. Twice in fact. The first was for Kiwirail testing their firefighting equipment to see if it was safe to use for fires under traction lines (25kV AC and 1.5kV DC). The second was for the NZDF on a navy frigate testing if saltwater firefighting equipment could be used on electrical fires under combat conditions. Pretty fun jobs those were.

Yep if he were doing this to transmission lines in the US he’d probably be in for a bad time. This must be lower voltage or he’s getting really lucky.

Pretty sure some of that water would have found its way down the outside of the hose, though.

Yeah sure bcs the hose totally is not wet.

Well, me too, but what do I know, he is an electrician and I am not.

Fiber optic cables don’t carry electricity. The 3 phase electric wires at the top are fine and not burning. If you don’t know how electricity works, I’m guessing you skipped basic school?

I know it’s supposed to shock you. Why you being a dick?