A dramatic video shows the moment a falling tree caused a power line to explode at a north-east wedding venue – as oblivious guests gathered for a ceremony nearby.
Logie Country House co-owner Tim Erbe was driving around the site on Saturday to check if any fallen timber was blocking the road, as the winds of Storm Malik picked up.
In a pair of tongue-in-cheek videos posted to Facebook on Sunday, he described what he came across: a branch that had snagged on one of the power lines crossing the grounds, steaming as the electricity coursed through it.
The first post, describing “How to fry a tree”, Mr Erbe writes: “You will need one: Half a million volts. Two. A tree. First boil off all the moisture in your tree until your tree catches fire.”
He follows it up with a second video, saying: “Once your tree is well burning, stand back and watch it explode.”
‘It was sparking away a bit’
The wood vanishes in a ball of flames accompanied by a sharp whip-crack sound, though Mr Erbe said: “The bang was much louder than it seems on the video.”
He added: “I watched it because it was sparking away a bit, and then I took my camera out and watched it start steaming and catch fire.
“When it caught fire, I thought I should probably get back in the car, because I know it’s not a good idea to stand near high voltage lines.
“You could tell this line was under a lot of strain with this tree being on it.”
Mr Erbe, who runs the country house with his wife Stephanie, lost phone access and internet signal, meaning he was unable to contact SSE for help.
Wedding party none the wiser
But less than fussed were the attendees at the wedding that was taking place at Logie Country House that day, as an automatic generator keeping the venue supplies with electricity quickly kicked in.
Mr Erbe said: “When the power goes off it automatically starts up, so they wouldn’t have known what was going on.
“The guests were all there, most of them wouldn’t have known there was even a storm going on, because the power went off for five seconds then came back on again.”
As many as 115,847 households lost their access to power at the weekend due to Storm Malik and Storm Corrie, with some forced to wait until at least Wednesday to get reconnected.
