Flippin' the Switch
Flippin' the Switch
S6 E5: Powering Lives Safely During Electrical Safety Month
Electricity powers our lives, but respecting its potential dangers is crucial for keeping our families safe. In this eye-opening episode of Flippin' the Switch, we're joined by Timmy Hall, a job training and safety specialist from Jones-Onslow EMC, who shares critical electrical safety information every household should know.
Whether you're a homeowner, parent, or just someone who uses electricity (so, everyone!), this episode delivers practical, potentially life-saving information presented in an accessible way. Take a moment to listen—the safety tips you learn could protect you and your loved ones from electrical hazards all year long.
Run Time: 25 minutes
Welcome back to another episode of Flippin' the Switch. May is Electrical Safety Month, a very important month to all of us here at the Co-op. Safety is top priority to all JOEMC employees and staff. While we power your homes and businesses, we recognize the responsibility we have to our members to do so safely and efficiently. Electricity can be extremely dangerous and even life-threatening, so it's important to remember key safety tips to take into your day-to-day life that ensure you and your loved ones are powered safely. Crystal Phillips interviews. Timmy Hall job training and safety specialist sharing important information that benefits everyone. As we head into summer, stay tuned. And with that let's start Flippin' the Switch.
Speaker 2:Well, it is the May edition of Flippin' the Switch, and this month you might have noticed in our spotlight newsletter that it is Electrical Safety Month, and we have a member of our safety team, Tim Hall. Just note that safety is every month of the year. We just take a little moment to shine a light on it.
Speaker 3:So thanks for coming oh absolutely Glad to be here, glad to be able to sit with you guys and discuss this. It's an exciting month to get safety out there to our members and do a little discussion on it and bring it to the forefront of the mind this month.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. There are lots of things that we'd like to start with. You know, the basics always come to mind and whenever we think about like safety, a lot of people I was actually at a school this morning doing a school visit, and it was don't put your hands in outlets. Kindergarten through fifth graders all tell stories of what they stuck in the outlet this morning, from a pancake to a fork, to a car key, because they were pretending to drive a car. Now I hope that none of our listeners are going to take advantage of any of those exciting activities because they take a quick trip to the hospital and with kids. Safety is always important, but it's also just as important for adults, grandparents, whomever because we all like to use electricity, but sometimes electricity doesn't really like us.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, absolutely. It's really a cool thing when we get to visit those kids in schools. Electricity is something that every one of us use every day, mm-hmm so we can get the message out to them and at such an early age and a lot of times what we find on the school visits and talking with the kids is they take it home to their parents. I hope so. Yeah, they teach a lot to the parents on safety too. So a message across the board and the kids are awesome and asking great questions. That is so true that open the mind to it and they learn so much.
Speaker 2:They soak it in at such a young age. I think that's all really great to be like. It's an experience to go to a school and talk to them. So today you're going to educate us all on some great safety tips for the month of May and all year long, and the first thing we're going to start off with is it's spring. That means people are out planting trees, shrubs, and I've talked to you non-podcast related, and we've had these discussions of like where people plant things and how it's safe and not safe. So can you like kind of just walk us through like the best practices of when you're planting trees? Where's the safest place to do that as far as like, overhead and underground lines?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely Of course. Like you said, it's that time of the year and I'm the same way. It's getting warm, we all want to get outside, it's lovely weather and we've all probably sat indoors through the cold and thought about the things outside we wanted to go do fixing up our yards, doing yard maintenance, all that great stuff. And it's fun, it's what we want to do, it's enjoyable. A lot of times we see trees. Trees are a big thing.
Speaker 3:Planting a tree and understanding the proper place to plant those trees is a big thing when it comes to safety, whether it's planting the tree in the ground or it's where you should plant it location-wise. We tell everybody, take a minute and kind of study your yard and look at it. Of course, the number one thing you'll want to look for is your overhead lines. Absolutely, whether it's services going to your home, secondary services, a primary line, which the members probably don't quite understand what that means, but anything, any kind of line that's going overhead, you want to try to stay away from that. Good rule of thumb is, if you see a line, stay at least 35 foot away from that line. That'll give you plenty of room there, because we know when you plant a tree. The idea is to let it grow bigger, bigger. There's different species of trees, so you might have like maple and a spruce and a pine. They get really tall Right. Those you may want to get further away, get 50 foot out.
Speaker 3:They're going to get. They're going to grow wide, so we want to be able to try to mitigate the risk there for them growing into the lines. Of course it knocks your power out, which we want. Reliability, that's, that's. We want to make sure our members' power always stay on, absolutely. But on the backside of that, the biggest thing we worry about is safety. If that tree grows and grows and say it were to get into contact with the primary line, of course you run the risk of it knocking the line out and the power goes out. But if it doesn't, there's a chance that electricity is always looking for some path to ground. There is a chance that it does energize that tree. Of course you've got to do yard maintenance. Later on You've got to cut that tree that's grown up into the line. There's a risk of you getting injured in that process.
Speaker 2:I don't think people think about that.
Speaker 3:No, the backside of that, and I did it when I was young as a kid. There was nothing more fun than a climate tree.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:It's still fun. You know what I mean. But if a tree does grow and it gets close to a line, there is that risk where a kid is within reach of a power line.
Speaker 1:We don't want that to happen.
Speaker 3:We want to make sure that they're planted at least 35 foot away. The bigger trees, your oaks, your spruce, your pines, get them 50 foot and if you have any questions at all about what type of tree you're looking to plant, you can always call Jones-Oslo. What type of tree you're looking to plant, you can always call Jones-Oslo. You can call here Vegetation Management. You can speak with somebody at Jones-Oslo. They'll reach back out to you. They may come visit your home, take a look at what you got, talk to you about it and find a good, safe place to plant that tree. I mean, we love trees just as much as anybody. Absolutely, we want you to have and after you find a good spot you know it's away from the lines you always want to call 8-1-1. 8-1-1 is our locate and they locate the utilities here in our area. It does not cost nothing to our members, anybody in the public. It's a simple phone call.
Speaker 3:Once you have that location set, the best thing you can do is take you some white spray paint. You can spray an X on the ground. Hey, this is where I'm planning on planting this tree. Spray paint. You can spray an X on the ground. Hey, this is where I'm planning on planting this tree. What they'll do is they'll come out and they'll tell you how many days you need to wait. But they will come out and they will mark on the ground what utilities are in the area. So if you see red paint, you know that it's power line. So if you mark a white X and they put a red mark there near it, you don't want to look at another location, don't want to dig there. We want to stay away from there because you run the risk of digging into a power line there, whether it's your primary line that's run through there or a secondary service. So you want to make sure you stay safe when you're digging.
Speaker 2:Okay, and just for our listeners that may not know what a secondary service that's, like your cable line or?
Speaker 3:Yeah, your secondary service is the actual line that comes from the transformer. So even our system has primary voltage, which is a higher voltage, so we can get the distribution across our system. Where you see a transformer, that's where we're taking that higher voltage, we're transforming it down and we're getting it to your home. Of course, them red lines you don't. You really don't know the difference, whether it's a primary line that may be underground or a secondary.
Speaker 2:You just know you don't want to dig there, absolutely.
Speaker 2:You want to definitely stay far away Now as far as power lines planting. All of that is great information, so we'll put a shameless plug for 8-1-1. If you're ever thinking about doing anything digging related, call 8-1-1. And I know you had mentioned you can call our office if you're considering some trees. They can maybe give you some advice. Absolutely, and another good resource for folks is that they can go to the Arbor Day Foundation website and you can go on there and discover what trees might be suitable for your area. Like native species is a good one for that. But in addition, they have a nice service that will showcase, kind of, if your house was this, this is where the tree should be. That kind of tells you what you should plant and what you shouldn't. 811 tells you where you should and shouldn't plant it.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and we have a diagram that is actually listed on our webpage where you can click right into that and it's got a schematic drawn with the house and type of trees. We recommend you don't plant them under power lines. Talking with our vegetation management supervisor, we're okay with shrubs, small flowering bushes.
Speaker 2:But we also want to think about too, if we do have an issue with the lime. We want to be able to get our employees, our lime industry, and one thing somebody wants to come home to is somebody where they say my tree got murdered yeah. And that's the last thing Jones-Onsley wants to do.
Speaker 3:We don't want to tear up anybody's property or damage anything. We don't want to do that at all.
Speaker 2:So if we all work together, there's a happy medium, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Absolutely at all. So if we all work together, there's a happy medium. Absolutely, absolutely. It's so much simpler when we all work together. We don't want to mess anybody's property up or anything they've worked hard for in this world Absolutely not. We've all done it. I mean here at John's also. We work hard for what we have, so we want to respect it and maintain it, just like anybody would for ours.
Speaker 2:Now, one of the things we talked about are the power lines that you go and get marked. But sometimes you'll be driving down the road and somebody has an accident and a power line could go down. Yeah, 100%. This is like the whole. We're going to do a total change here from spring planting to another helpful safety tip about downed power lines.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. This time of the year we're getting thunderstorms. Thunderstorms bring, I mean, straight-line winds, chance of tornadoes. That always brings downed trees. Downed trees are a lot of times what we see in the spring and the summer through these winds, tearing down lines. The number one recommendation if you see any kind of line that is on the ground, your distance, stay away from it. Um, we always tell everybody maintain somewhere between 50 and 100 foot from any down line. Don't attempt to try to identify what kind of line. It is cable line powered that, don't worry about it. You know it's. It's a down line. Stay far away from it. Call jen's onsla. Get the trained professionals. These guys are qualified. We have some of the best linemen in the world, I believe. Get them out there. They know the proper procedures and steps that we go through to make sure that our guys stay safe. They are properly trained, heavily trained on this stuff. They'll come out and they'll identify it for you.
Speaker 2:And the average member or passerby does not have any of that equipment to be able to stay safe around that situation. So let the experts handle it.
Speaker 3:Like you said, there's high-tech equipment that we do use that lets them guys know when it's safe and when it's not. So we want to make sure we do that and we tell people. At 50 to 100 foot people go well, what's that kind of look like, and I think two school buses. And we say that because when a line's on the ground it may travel through ground right. So there's a higher voltage where it's laying and a thing we call step potential. So if you were to imagine a lake that is just glassed over, nice and pretty, you take a pebble and you throw it in the middle of that lake and the ripples that go out from it that's the way you think about electricity on a live line on the ground. That's kind of what it does. So as you get further the voltage goes down. The problem is is if you are standing in one place and you step with your feet, you're at a different voltage with that foot.
Speaker 2:Now I hope you're going to talk about some of the moves you need to do with your feet. Yes, absolutely yeah, there's a good dance. This is an eye-opening experience whenever you told me about it, and now it's all I think about whenever I see something like that.
Speaker 3:It is. We share it a lot with the schools and what we hear the most coming out of the schools are the adults and the teachers. They're there and they go. I never knew that, and it got all of us in the office too. This is why we want to get this message out.
Speaker 3:But when you step, it tries to balance that through you, which is extremely dangerous. It's harmful, yeah so, and, like you said, you want to keep that distance. But the same thing goes if you're in a car accident or you see a car accident and a line falls on your vehicle. We get asked all the time what do you do in that situation? Well, if you can't stay inside the vehicle, stay inside of it. The tires on the car are rubber. Rubber is a natural insulator. So the car where the metal may be car, you're rubber. Rubber is a natural insulator, so the car with the metal may be energized. You're isolated from the ground, so stay inside of it. Then 911, fire department knows that if something is involved that way, they call Jones-Onslow immediately. We respond. We know they're going to be completely safe.
Speaker 3:Now, in the situation where a line were to fall on a vehicle, in the vehicle, there was extreme emergency and you had to get out of the vehicle. That's a different situation, of course. Just say the vehicle's on fire, you can't stay inside of that vehicle at that point. You have to get yourself out of that situation. So rule of thumb is if you're inside the vehicle, if you have a rubber sole shoe, take it off. If it's bendable, use that to open the handle on the door. So take it and get underneath it open and just take that shoe and push the door open. At that point don't touch anything outside of the vehicle. Kind of unbuckle yourself, square yourself. So you're looking at the entrance, the exit of the vehicle, the doorway. Now, in all one motion, while touching it inside the vehicle, you want to push yourself out and hop out, landing both feet on the ground at the same time. From there that's when we get into our dance moves that the kids love at the school. We love performing it for them. But you can Maybe we'll have a video of that later we should, we should.
Speaker 3:You can either do what we call the bunny hop, and the idea is, as long as you're staying through that footage away from that line, as long as you're keeping both feet on the ground at the same time. So you're going to bunny hop. You're going to jump, land both feet on the ground, moving away from the line. You're going to do that for 50 to 100 foot. A lot of bunny hops. It's a lot of bunny hops, but it's worth it. Oh, it saves your life. Yeah, absolutely. But you want to bunny hop 50 to 100 foot out. So that way you're out of that situation. You're away from that danger.
Speaker 3:Now, once you're 50 to 100 foot, at that point, now you can walk regularly, you can walk foot by foot. Then what we have is called a shuffle. This shuffle works well too. So once you're laying at both feet on the ground outside that vehicle, you don't touch nothing on that vehicle. Stay away from it. Now you can just shuffle your feet, and that's simply by sliding one foot at a time, but keeping them within distance of your feet. Keep them within distance. You're not going too far, because you're just going to shuffle and you're going to shuffle for 1,500 foot. You're outside of that zone and now you can walk regularly. But those are two ways that you can. If you're ever put in that situation and you have to get yourself out of it, there's two simple ways.
Speaker 2:And those are two simple ways that most people probably had no idea, no idea.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a lot of people we say we tell them about step potential and they go what it's a step potential? And they ask what do you mean? What is that? You know what I mean? And that's something we need to get out to everybody, I mean our members in the public. Safety is number one, priority, right? Our mission statement, the way I've always looked at it, safety was the first adjective we used in what we do. I mean, that's number one.
Speaker 2:So now we know those two topics are big ones for us. But are there any kind of misconceptions people have about electrical safety?
Speaker 3:They do. Just because the lights aren't on in your home doesn't mean they're written power somewhere near you. You sit in the house, the lights go off, you automatically assume there's no electricity.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:None. You go outside and in those vacations you see a line down. You go there's no power on it. My house don't have power. That's the most common misconception. Why, what makes electricity so dangerous? Right, you can't see electricity, you can't smell electricity, you can't hear electricity. It's just there. Electricity used to be a luxury a long time ago. We really don't understand the danger in electricity because I think it's a little bit complacency.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, you didn't have. If you have no experience of a danger of it, or never seen it, you just think I'm turning on my light switch Absolutely.
Speaker 3:And back in the day when it first came around it was I mean you kind of people were leery. Yeah, it's electricity, this thing is dangerous. But we've had it so long now maybe complacency, some kind of a wire that's holding electricity. Like you said, you talk to the kids every receptacle is a risk.
Speaker 2:So over your time here because you've been here for a number of years have there been any experiences or like happenings that have occurred, like safety related, that you can recall, that have made an impact on how you treat electricity?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, there's one time at the forefront of my mind that I remember and it's being taught those steps, why they're so important. Done line work for a number of years and enjoyed it. But remembering the steps to making sure we're safe and in the process of following those steps, just realizing what electricity looks like, at the magnitude of which it's on the power lines, and it opened my eyes really big.
Speaker 2:You see how big it really is. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3:You don't realize how scary it is until then, absolutely. But I remember we had a down line, we got cold, had power out. Really awesome, foreman I was working with that night. I was second man on call. We got there and it was cold, freezing cold. 3 am in the morning the ground was iced up pretty good. Remember pulling up, seeing the line down.
Speaker 3:We do the same thing. We keep our distance. We know how dangerous it is. We're trained on how dangerous it is. That's the forefront of our mind. So, following our safety rules, we kept our distance.
Speaker 3:And I remember that foreman saying hey, I'm going to leave you here, you stay here, I'm going to run to the substation. Because at that point we go through our steps to find out is this energized, is it not? We need to start testing to find out. But he wanted to go see if the circuit was open or not at the substation. I said sure. He said just keep everybody away from it. Somebody comes by, keep their distance. I said, yes, sir, we will.
Speaker 3:But I remember in that moment that piece of primary line laying on the ground and somehow it found ground. I don't know if it was the ice, had it insulated, so it wasn't finding ground but it was energized. You, it was insulated, so it wasn't finding ground, but it was energized. And you don't know, right, you can't smell it, I mean, you can't see electricity. And I remember, from a distance, when it found ground, the arc it made and it burnt that wire all the way back to the pole into it. It cleared itself, it was hanging clear and I remember in that moment going whoa Speaks volumes to why you got to be that far away.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely, and why we go through the steps to stay safe and why we want our members in those scenarios to stay away from it. Keep your distance. Let somebody from Jones-Honsler respond. They're qualified, they're trained in how to take care of it. Of course, we're getting close to summer again, so all the kids are going to be out of school. As a lineman, I used to love this time of the year because it is hot, it's out there, but you get to see the kids yeah.
Speaker 2:I love seeing you guys.
Speaker 3:They do. You pull up with a big bucket truck. There's nothing that has made their day more than seeing that bucket truck and talking to them and let them look at it and show them the tools you work with. It's all fun, they're home. There's risk, there's exposure and those big green boxes you may see in front of your house they're transformers. You live in an underground subdivision. That's how we get the power to your home, get it transformed, get it out. They are set and they are safe when we set them. We are constantly doing inspections. We're going around checking them, making sure we're holding our end right. We want to keep everybody safe, but that's not to say that somebody in your neighborhood might not accidentally back into one. So there may be something that is unsafe going on inside that transformer. And so we tell all the kids hey, you hear a lot of them. We ask them you seen a big green box in the front of your house. Yeah, you like them. Yeah, they're great. We sit on them, play on them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think about that often when you drive through and you see everybody on there like well, they should get off.
Speaker 3:That's getting the word out. No, it is a piece of equipment that is a transformer.
Speaker 3:It is holding electricity. Keep your distance from them at all times. Don't go touching them. Don't go dancing and playing on them. And as a kid you loved to climb and do everything. Go to the front porch, Don't go there, yeah. And then you'll see the little green boxes that are in some yards. They're not as big as the big transformers, they're also green, but those are secondary pedestals and then those are a lot of times we use them to get the secondary cable. It's any green box you see on the ground. Stay away from it. If you're in the public and you see one that might have wires exposed, stay away from it. Call might have wires exposed, stay away from it. Call us. A lot of cable companies. They have green boxes, phone companies. Don't worry about determining whether it's theirs or ours. Our guys will come out. Don't cost you nothing. We'll figure out who it belongs to. We'll get a call in to make sure it gets taken care of.
Speaker 2:I think all of these are spectacular tips for our members to be aware of. Do you feel like we've missed anything that would be really important for the members to know? Aware of? Do you?
Speaker 3:feel like we've missed anything. That would be really important for the members to know. I would love for everybody to remember is anytime it deals with electricity, make sure that if you have an issue, always use the right resources and contact somebody who's qualified. Maybe we become complacent and we forget how dangerous it is, but it's extremely dangerous In a qualified person that has had the proper training. They know all the steps to take, they can let you know what issues you have and they can get it taken care of for you. Never attempt to do it on your own Absolutely, and that's a big part of it.
Speaker 2:Well, as we said, it is Electrical Safety Month, but Timmy can attest to this Safety is number one priority all year round, absolutely, and we hope that you as members feel the same way. Yes, so remember, you can give us a call if you have any questions for our vegetation management, call 811. If you're planning on digging, you know, check Arbor Day. You can check that website. There are lots of options there too, but then you can also go to our website and check out some of the safety resources that we provide. So we really appreciate having you here today.
Speaker 4:Timmy and I hope everybody has a great May. May is Electric Safety Month and we want to educate our members about safely using new, innovative options for their lives. Before getting an electric vehicle, make sure your home is ready. Have a qualified electrician. Complete a site assessment of your home or business for its charging capacity. First, innovative smart plugs let you turn off home devices from anywhere by plugging these into your existing outlet and downloading an app on your phone. For more safety tips, visit joemccom.
Speaker 1:Hey everyone, it's Natalie and I'm here to tell you what's happening at your co -op this month. Here is your energy efficiency tip of the month. Routine maintenance is important to keep your refrigerator running efficiently. Lint and dirt should be cleaned from the refrigerator coils every six months to a year, and more often if there are pets in the home. When coils are coated with lint, dust or pet hair, your refrigerator works harder than it's designed to, which can prevent the appliance from cooling properly and efficiently. The additional work can increase the energy costs of the refrigerator by as much as 35% and shorten the life of the appliance. So don't forget routine maintenance on your home refrigerator.
Speaker 1:Teachers, it's time to apply for a Bright Ideas grant. Jones-onslow EMC is partnering with outstanding educators to bring their creative lesson plans to life. Applications opened on April 1st and teachers can apply for a Bright Ideas educational grant to fund projects that enhance students' success in the classroom. Applications and more information about the program can be found at wwwncbrightideascom. Bright Ideas grant applications will be accepted through September 15th, but teachers are encouraged to apply early. To learn more, visit joemccom. Slash community slash bright, dash ideas.
Speaker 1:Hurricane season is around the corner and Hurricane Preparedness Week in May is the perfect time for JOEMC members to get storm ready. A little planning today can save you from major headaches later. Check out our social media pages to see in detail what you can do to maintain your home, build an emergency kit, prepare financially and stay informed before hurricane season begins. Did you know we offer rebates on energy-efficient appliances, heating and cooling equipment, home EV charging units and more? Read our monthly e-newsletter for more details on our website at joemccom. And that's what's happening at your co-op this month Natalie signing off. Well, folks, that's all for today's episode of Flippin' the Switch. Be sure to follow us on our social media platforms to stay in the loop with Jones Onslow. We'll see y'all next time.