The first thing that the fire department does is cut the power.I always assumed it was to prevent electrocution from water on the lines but come to think of it an axe could cut the insulation and the result could be the same.
Don’t listen to them aha. The power comp comes around now and then & washes them with a hose. Perfectly safe.
You sound pretty bored though.
You might check the story about the guy who peed on that live third rail of a subway train.
Or better yet, pay some troll off the street to find out, and take your money back after he’s been fried.
The vast majority of homes would have insulated wires going to the “entrance” or weatherhead, as it is called. In most new homes it is undergrounded, and the transformer will be on a someones lawn. On the other hand I have seen some rural homes where, due to the large size of the property and the high draw of various equipment (well pumps, resistance heating, etc) 2kV lines were run to a pole mounted transformer about 10 feet from the house. The wires from the transformer were regular heavily insulated lines, and went normally to the weatherhead and into the panel. You can’t assume that just because wire are going to the house that they are insulated low voltage lines.
Regular low voltage insulated wires are safe in the rain, and cleanable with a hose. Transmission lines aren’t cleaned as such, but the insulators that mount them to the pole are, with pulsed DI water as I mentioned above. The insulators get dusty, and the dust can create a path. The little ceramic insulators are shaped like hemi-spheres, rounded side up, are that shape just so rain water can’t flow in streams down them and create a connection. Rain with very high winds can cause lots of shorts, although flailing tree limbs generally do more damage during storms.
A stream of water from a hose, or a broken pipe even, can be enough to cause a phase to ground short, and people have died as a result of this. While the stream does break down into a series of droplets, the space between the droplets can be small and be enough to conduct high voltage power. I wouldn’t design a circuit using water streams as conductors, but it doesn’t take all that much current to kill a person, and a hose is good enough. The broken pipe case is more dangerous because no one has to be concious to hold the stream on the lines, and the juice flows a little longer, and the pipe breaker is usually in a big puddle.
I stand by my first response, determine if the lines are bundled, and if they are it is safe. If not, don’t spray them, or get a pool skimmer near them, or give your kids mylar ballons, fly kites in the rain near them, or anything like that.