This type of accident is extremely rare but reveals the great vulnerability of birds to human infrastructure. This Thursday, August 26, in Rion-des-Landes (Landes), a stork caught fire on contact with a power line causing a major fire.
According to France Bleu Gascogne, the collision caused a fire to start consuming some 1,500 m2 of vegetation. The bird did not survive the shock.
According to the firefighters, it was the stork that was at the origin of the fire. A disaster which, moreover, could have been much more serious, if volunteers from the municipal reserve, then supported by the firefighters, had not mobilized.
Still according to the information transmitted by the firefighters and reported by the local media, a bird can in theory not be electrocuted in contact with an electric wire, except if it touches two at the same time.
The stork, due to its large size, has such a scale that it could touch two electric wires at the same time. It was this that caused his electrocution and the conflagration of his feathers, then his death.