On route 9 in Wellesley on Friday, about halfway between route 27 and route 16, welders working at the base of a Verizon cell antenna tower set the whole thing on fire. Here's a 3 minute video clip of the tower burning and then falling. And here's a 23 second video clip of the tower falling from a different angle, taken by a driver on route 9. Yet another video clip, this one only 16 seconds long, was shot from yet another angle. And, finally, this 12 second clip was shot from the side of the road on route 9.I'd have to say that nothing like this can ever happen anymore without this kind of extensive coverage...
If you can't figure out how a metal tower can burn, though, I'm guessing that the power and transmission lines that have to be routed inside the masting were the way the fire spread. Since all that wiring is coated with insulation that can burn quite fiercely once it gets going, it wouldn't be a far stretch to picture a welding torch setting that insulation on fire, and having it run right up the inside of the mast in just a few seconds.. It would certainly account for the black smoke.
Verizon cellphone users on that stretch of route 9 may find their coverage to be a bit spotty for a while...
Update: According to an e-mail I got today (1/26/09) from Verizon, this was not one of their towers.
3 comments:
Ummm, it didn't look like metal to me,, it looked like a regular telephone pole.
The welding can heat up and catch the coax cabling inside the pole on fire. It has a plastic insulation that will burn. Some guys lubricate the cables when pulling them through the tower, and if they use the wrong lubricant, that can contribute to the fire. It's not power cables, it's coax from the antennas up top to the ground equipment in the shelter.
Yup, transmission lines... which I mentioned. But there has to be at least one power cable, as well, for the required FAA tower lighting.
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