As Outages Spike, Celebrate Moms and Grads With Secure Metallic Balloons
04 May 2016 - 4:00AM
Business Wire
Like water and electricity, metallic balloons and power lines
don’t mix.
And, just like last year, power outages caused by floating
balloons are on a record pace. After experiencing an all-time high
924 outages last year, Southern California Edison, through March,
is already 17 percent ahead of that pace with 212 outages compared
to 182 at the same point last year.
The 109 balloon outages in March is already a new record,
exceeding the SCE high of 89 reached last year.
With all of this coming even before the months with the most
outages — May and June — and their celebrations of Mother’s Day,
Father’s Day, graduations and proms, SCE 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.
“The safest metallic balloon is clearly a secure one,” said Paul
Jeske, SCE’s director of Corporate Health and Safety. “Only
properly weighted balloons should be sold to customers and buyers
should never remove that weight or release their balloons outdoors
because of the risks to public safety.”
Those risks include serious injuries and property damage that
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.
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. 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, 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, 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.
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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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160503006811/en/
Media Contact:Southern California EdisonPaul Netter,
626-302-2255
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