Fall Safety Tips
Develop a lifestyle that includes safety around electricity as an everyday priority.
- Grass and stubble fires.
- Closing the cottage.
- Halloween safety.
- Pre-season warm up.
- Install a carbon monoxide detector.
- Clean the eavestroughs.
- Harvest safety.
- Yard electrical safety.
- Stay away from substations.
- Stay away from power lines.
- Never shoot at insulators.
- Planting shrubs near a padmount transformer.
Grass and stubble fires
Every year electrical outages occur in communities as a result of damage to Manitoba Hydro poles caused by uncontrolled stubble fires.
Fires that cause damage to power poles and lines create power outages, which can leave residents without energy for hours and people on life support at risk. Fallen poles and power lines are extremely dangerous on the ground.
As a landowner, you are responsible for damage caused by your grass fires and liable for the cost of repairing or replacing damaged utility poles.
Before you start your burn this year, please ensure that you have safety precautions in place. Install fireguards to protect utility poles and carefully monitor your stubble burning.Closing the cottage
When you close the cottage for the season, don't forget to turn off the electric circuit to the water heater and drain the water heater tank to avoid damage by freezing.
Appliances that use water need special attention. To get the clothes washer ready for winter storage, run a normal cycle with bleach or white vinegar to disinfect it. Turn off the hot and cold water, disconnect the hoses, and advance the machine to the spin cycle. This ensures that all water gets out of the appliance. Finally, disconnect the power supply and leave the lid open so the last of the moisture can evaporate. Follow a similar process with the dishwasher.
If you have electric heat at the cottage, turn off the power supply at the main switch to prevent the heat from coming on during the winter.
Halloween safety
There is a wide variety of electrical Halloween decorations to choose from. Use them properly to reduce the risk of fire or injury.
- Choose lights and animated figures with certified safety approvals;
- If you use an extension cord, check whether you have an indoor or outdoor cord and be sure it's appropriately sized for the job;
- Follow directions to install and maintain electrical decorations;
- Check decorations for cracked sockets, frayed or loose wires and replace them if necessary.
Pre-season warm up
Proper heating system maintenance will extend the life of your equipment and ensure a safer system. Have your furnace serviced professionally, replace furnace filters, and give baseboards a good vacuum before the heating season arrives.
Fuel burning appliances require fresh air intake to burn efficiently. Ensure external vents and chimneys are clear of blockages from leaves and other debris.
Install a carbon monoxide detector
Just as a smoke alarm can warn you of a fire in your home, a carbon monoxide (C0) detector can alert you to the presence of carbon monoxide gas in your home.
Carbon monoxide is dangerous and is a threat if you use wood or fossil-fuel burning equipment (oil, propane, natural gas or coal), or have an attached garage. Read more about CO safety.
Clean the eavestroughs
Clean and repair leaky eavestroughs. This prevents ice and melting snow from dripping onto the natural gas meter and/or pressure regulator set and freezing when the weather turns cold. Your gas meter has a regulator to ensure that high pressure gas does not enter your home. Ice freezing on the regulator can obstruct the vent on the regulator and cause it to malfunction and allow excess gas into the house.
Harvest safety
Before you move equipment through the yard, lower dump truck boxes, cultivator wings, and augers. Never lift a power line with a piece of lumber. Choose the safest route.
Yard electrical safety
Safety around the yard has several components, from tool operation to recognizing the location of existing power lines on your property.
Working with power tools
- To avoid accidental start-ups, turn power tools off when they are unattended, even for a short time.
- If a power tool or other electrical appliance falls into water, always unplug it first before you take it out of the water.
- Don't twist power tool cords, and keep them away from sharp edges. Keep connections between outdoor extension cords and the cords of electric equipment above wet ground.
- Use double-insulated power tools. They have non-conductive plastic housings that help reduce the risk of shock. They are equipped with two-prong plugs.
- Use a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) to reduce the risk of shock when you use power tools in damp or wet areas. A GFCI is a type of circuit breaker that is designed to prevent serious shock.
Trimming trees
A tree falling onto power lines can cause a power outage, serious injury, and even death to those standing in the immediate area. The same danger exists if the branches fall onto a line.
As a general rule of thumb for safe trimming, the tree should be at least twice its length away from an overhead power source. Here are some other tips to make sure that you and family members are aware of the safety hazards of tree trimming when there are power lines around:
- Before trimming or felling a tree, check the immediate vicinity to determine exactly where overhead power lines are located. Even with careful planning, a gust of wind could topple a tree in the wrong direction.
- Do not use a metal ladder or tools that conduct electricity when lines are nearby.
- If there is any doubt that a tree or branch will fall on a line, contact your local Manitoba Hydro office. A crew will be sent to assess the situation. If there is an obvious problem, our personnel will do the work for you.
Stay away from substations
Substations are part of the electrical distribution system that delivers electricity to our homes. Power companies fence the stations to protect people from the equipment inside. The warning signs at our fenced-in electrical facilities warn the public of danger and to stay out.
The high voltage electricity inside a substation makes it a dangerous place for people who don't have the right training and protective gear.
Electricity travels with frightening speed. Don't put yourself in its dangerous path.
On occasion, vandals purposely open gates or cut holes in the fence, creating an opportunity to access the hazards within the station. If you see a substation fence that has been vandalized, stay clear and call 1-888-MBHYDRO immediately to report the hazard.
Stay away from power lines
Some popular movies depict scenes where the characters gain special powers by making contact with electricity. Since young people may imitate what they see, it is important to remind them that movies are created with special effects.
It takes only 10 to 40 milliamps of electricity to cause serious injury. Power lines can carry thousands of volts, enough to be lethal.
Remind children to treat electricity with respect.
- DO NOT throw objects such as sneakers at or over power lines, it is dangerous. If something gets caught in a power line, DO NOT try to get it. Contact your local Manitoba Hydro office for help.
- Stay away from downed power lines. Contact with any wire could be lethal.
- Never play near power lines or electrical equipment like substations or transformers.
Contact with any power line could cause serious injury. The only people authorized to go near power lines are the trained Manitoba Hydro professionals. Remind your children to stay away from power lines at all times.
Never shoot at insulators
Insulators on hydro poles and towers keep electricity from finding a path to the ground. A broken insulator can disrupt power and the pole or tower could become charged with electricity and create an electrocution hazard. If you suspect an insulator is damaged, do not go near the tower or pole.
Planting shrubs near a padmount transformer
Many homeowners have padmount transformers located on their property. You can landscape around the transformer with ornamental shrubs and be safe and functional at the same time. These guidelines apply to residential property:
- Do not plant on the padlock side of the unit;
- Allow at least three metres for clearances for maintenance and repairs on distribution equipment.
If you are outside of Winnipeg, call us at 1-888-MBHYDRO (1-888-624-9376), and in Winnipeg call 480-1212 to locate natural gas and electric underground lines or cables. Our trained personnel will mark the locations of underground power lines, natural gas lines, and buried installations such as vaults containing transformers or electrical switchgear.
