As Metallic Balloon Outages Soar, SCE Urges Customers to Secure Them This Valentine’s Day
February 04 2016 - 8:01PM
Business Wire
Records might be made to be broken, but Southern California
Edison just experienced one that it never wants to come close to
again.
SCE saw an all-time high 924 power outages caused by
free-floating metallic balloons last year, far surpassing its
previous high of 714 in 2012.
With Valentine’s Day near, SCE strongly urges its customers to
make sure their balloons are always tied to a weight — as required
by California law — and to never release them outdoors because of
the thousands of customers left without power when the metallic
balloons float into power lines and other electrical equipment.
Serious injuries and property damage can occur when the balloon
contact is severe enough to bring down power lines — which happened
96 times last year for SCE. Anyone who sees a downed line or
dangling wire — even if it appears not to be live — should not
touch or approach it or anything in contact with it and call 911
immediately.
“Metallic balloons look harmless, but there’s no way to
overstate how dangerous they can be when released outside,” said
Paul Jeske, SCE’s director of Corporate Health and Safety.
“Merchants should always ensure that balloons are property weighted
and remind their customers to never release them outdoors.”
To illustrate the spike in balloon outages that typically begins
in February and peaks in June, they rose 82 percent last year from
January (33) to February (60), peaking with an all-time monthly
high of 152 in June.
To prevent outages and injuries, SCE recommends some other
safety tips for handling metallic balloons:
- Do not attempt to retrieve a balloon —
or any foreign object — tangled in power lines or inside a
substation. Instead, call SCE at 800-611-1911 and report the
problem.
- Never tie a metallic balloon to a
child’s wrist. If the balloon contacts electricity, such as the
service drop to a home, it can travel through the balloon and into
the child, causing serious injury or death.
- Never attach streamers to any balloon —
latex or metallic.
- When done with balloons, do not release
them. Puncture them several times or cut the knot and throw them in
the garbage to prevent them from floating away.
More on metallic balloon safety can be found at
on.sce.com/staysafe. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Infographic: Celebrating Valentine’s Day Safely
About Southern California Edison
An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California
Edison is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a
population of nearly 14 million via 5 million customer accounts in
a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and
Southern California.
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Southern California EdisonMedia Contact:Paul Netter, (626)
302-2255
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