GILMER (KTYX) – Ice and snow- covered tree branches were responsible for bringing down power lines, cutting electricity to nearly 15-thousand customers of Upshur Rural Electric. In one instance, power lines caught fire right in front of crews.

Fallen power lines don’t mix well with anything especially snow. Flames captured on cell phone video by an Upshur Rural Electric Cooperative workers shows a mixture gone wrong.

“The closer they got to the line, they realized it was arcing. then it caught on fire and began to burn.”

Melissa reeves with URECC says all day yesterday and today, crews were out trying to get power restored to nearly 15,000. By 3:00 Thursday that number had been whittled down to just over 1,000.

“With the snow and the ices we’ve seen some significant outages.”

When outages get to be as high as it did at the height of the storm, the number of fallen lines are high too. With a 10 county coverage area, it’s hard for crews to get to all of them quickly.

“So we just caution all of our customers or anyone out there if you come up on a power line that’s laying on the ground please assume it can possible be energized,” said Reeves.

This is a warning the public is urged to take seriously even when the line looks safe. Luckily in this case no one was hurt, but it happens.the Electrical Safety Foundation international reports, each year nearly 400 people are electrocuted. Fifteen percent of those deaths are power line related. Reeves said the solution is simple.

“stay clear of it report it and stay away from it.”

With the bad weather, you’re likely to come across down lines while driving your car. If you do don’t get out of your car. Call for 911 or your electric company.