This viral video shows a fallen tree leaning on a 110,000-volt power line, with the electricity coursing through it and making it look like a lightning bolt repeatedly striking the ground.
The incident took place in a forested area between the municipalities of Frankendorf and Kapellendorf in the central German state of Thuringia after a storm.
The tree reportedly continued to burn and eventually fell to the ground, with the firefighters then cutting it up and putting out the fire.
One of the firefighters deployed to the scene, Chris Vollrath, 31, said: “No one had ever seen anything like this before. We have already reached 2.3 million people on our Facebook page alone. Many comments come from abroad. Some users are reminded of ‘Ghostbusters’ or ‘Rammstein’, others write ‘E-Tree’, ‘Techno Music’ or ‘Christmas Tree Lighting’.
At the time of reporting, the video had over 2,400 ‘likes’ and over 3,000 shares.
Electricity network expert Martin Schreiber, 52, said the tree looked the way it did “because the roots were still in the swampy, damp earth” and this caused “a lot of short circuits that look like small lightning bolts”.
He added that even being close to the tree with the electricity coursing through it could be enough to kill a person, even without direct contact. He said: “Getting closer than one metre would have been enough.”
The estimated damage to the electricity power lines was estimated at EUR 6,000 (GBP 5,020).
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: William McGee, Agency: Newsflash
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