WABI-TV 5 equipment cuts power in Bangor

BANGOR – While a local television station employee was setting up for a live shot early Wednesday morning on Hammond Street, some equipment struck an electrical wire, cutting power to approximately 100 homes.

Shortly after 3 a.m., the WABI-TV 5 employee set up the van with a mobile tower on Hammond Street at the junction of West Broadway. When he raised the tower, it touched the electrical lines, blowing a fuse and cutting power, said Susan Faloon, spokeswoman for Bangor Hydro-Electric Co.

Nobody was injured and the station’s electronic equipment was minimally damaged, said Jim Morris, WABI news director.

“We really dodged a bullet on this one,” Morris said. “It was early in the morning, dark, and the snow was coming down. We’ve never even had a close call.”

Dave Clark, a veteran station employee, was setting up the equipment alone when the incident happened, Morris said. Clark was preparing for a live broadcast scheduled between 5 and 7 a.m. to show viewers the end of the latest snowstorm, Morris said.

Bangor Hydro learned of the outage at about 3:30 a.m. and had restored power to the nearly 100 affected customers by 5 a.m., Faloon said.

Despite the outage, WABI meteorologist Chris Ewing managed to do the live shot for the morning newscasts at a different location, Morris said.

Faloon said the incident could have been fatal and in the next few weeks Bangor Hydro will offer safety training to media outlets that use similar equipment.

“Statistically [this equipment] is pretty safe because everyone is fairly well trained,” Morris said. “We were really lucky, this is potentially a real dangerous situation. We can insure equipment, but how do you get back a person?”