Linemen Brave High Wire Helicopter Work

Against the grey backdrop of a windy Saturday, a bright yellow helicopter hovered over high voltage wires across the street from 777 Federal Road in Brookfield. A lone linesman stood on the runners of the helicopter as it bobbed in place while he attached the new wires to the old. The whirling blades were only a few feet from the head of the linesman, and as the wind blew, the blades whirled almost perilously close to the highly charged wires.

The linesman was with an independent company, IBEW, local 42, that had been contracted by Connecticut Light and Power (CL&P) to restore and replace the high voltage fiber optical wire. Finishing his work at the top of one tower, he stood outside on the runner as the helicopter made its way to the next.

While a cold wind blew on the ground, crane operator Willie Renfro, of Middletown, said, “When it's windy, the helicopter can't hover for a long time. It will land and come back for the linesman.”

Indeed, the increasing wind caused the helicopter to drop the linesman off at the top of the next pole, then landing on the ground unseen in the heavy foliage below.

"The helicopter is used when the terrain is either mountainous or very rural," Refro explained. “It isn't unusual to run the wires like this, although we usually do this in mountainous or very rural terrain."

“They have a block of wires that they attach and then they can pull the new wire through when they pull out the old," Renfro said, pointing to the linesman who seemed to be balanced on the head of a distant pin.

“We aren't repairing wires here, this is just a restoration of fiber optical wires for technology,” he explained. “We're installing new fiber. It's dangerous work, but it becomes second nature to us, it's all procedure. You just can't ever become complacent."

Two men got into the crane to do more of the same work at the top of the high voltage tower across the street. Renfro prepared the crane to ascend with Kevin Hare, of Florida, who has been running the lines for 10 years, and Keith Taylor from Indiana, who has been installing wires for about 30 years.

The men made their adjustments inside the bucket that would lift them up to the charged wires high above.

“We've been here for about six weeks," Hare said. "We've been all over Connecticut. When we're not fixing the wires from the crane or the outside of helicopter, we're flying it.”

Renro said that there are times, not on this job, that they are energized, live, with the electricity that runs through the wires.

“That's the wave of the future," he said. "It will save the electrical companies a lot of money.” When asked who would choose to do such dangerous work, he said, “Anybody who wants to make a lot of money.”

With Middletown as his home base, Renfro makes the 45 minute drive to return home each night. Hare and Taylor said are looking forward to returning home on Thursday to celebrate the holidays.