They climb steel towers and shimmy along a ladder to reach a 500,000 volt line. Then the Sand Diego Gas & Electric linemen sit directly on those high power lines to make repairs.
They call it barehanding, because by sitting directly on the wires, the linemen can use their gloved hands to make repairs to the high-voltage tower system without using insulated sticks that can be awkward to handle.
The linemen say it's very safe because the electricity flows around them, through the specially made suits they wear.
"So as long as they maintain that insulation, electricity can't find a path to ground, and essentially, they're like a bird on a wire," explains Curtis Fitzgerald, an SDG&E construction supervisor.
Fitzgerald said that barehanding crews can work about twice as fast as crews who use insulated hot sticks to make the same repairs.
On Thursday, an SDG&E crew demonstrated the on an electrical transmission tower near the Miguel Substation in Chula Vista. They repaired and replaced ceramic insulators on the tower, while media crews video taped them performing their work.
SDG&E's Fitzgerald said that the risk of electrocution is actually less than the risk of falling or getting tangled up in their safety rigging.
"If something were to happen," he says, "I think it would more likely be a mistake doing that than actually getting shocked."
In fact, since they started barehanding in 2007, there have been no injuries related to the prodecure at all.
Approximately 12 SDG&E linemen are trained in the barehanding technique. It takes about two weeks of special training to learn, and the barehanders take a day-long refresher course every year.
