Barbara Lawlor, Boulder County.  On Tuesday afternoon, a dump truck heading down Magnolia Road got the box on the truck tangled in an overhead power line. Tension on the wire caused smoking and sparking where the line was touching a pine tree.

Boulder County Road employees and Timberline Fire Protection District firefighters were on the scene which was potentially dangerous. Traffic was told to turn around as emergency workers waited for the Xcel Energy truck to show up.

When it did, an employee jumped into the cherry picker and began disconnecting the hot wire. County workers and firefighters stood back, saying if the line snapped the whole area could catch fire. The Xcel employee safely dealt with the power line wires, including the one wound up under the dump truck box, and opened the road for traffic.

With the fire danger being as high as it is, you never know where the spark could come from that could ignite our forest and residents should be diligent and call in any potential hazards.

(Originally published in the December 21, 2017 print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)