Quick answer: When a Branch Is Touching a Wire — Removing a tree is planning before it is cutting: where the wood lands, what is under it, whether a rope or a crane takes the weight, and what is left when the crew drives away. A removal is finished when the drop zone is clear and the stump is dealt with, not when the trunk hits the ground.
Field note. What we see here is that access decides the price more than height does: a pine over a fence on a slope with no driveway costs more to take down safely than a taller tree with a clear drop, and the plan is where that shows up.
On the other hand, removal is not the only safe answer — a tree with one failing limb, or a lean that can be corrected by reduction, is often better kept and managed than gone.
There is a category of tree job that is not a tree job. The moment a limb contacts a conductor, the tree is a conductive path to earth, and everything about the situation is governed by electrical rules rather than arboricultural ones. The most experienced climber on the coast has no business near it until the utility says the circuit is isolated.
Assume it is live, including when it looks dead
A downed conductor may be de-energised, may be re-energised automatically by a recloser, and may be back-fed from a generator or a neighbouring circuit. There is no visual signature that distinguishes a dead line from a live one. The only reliable statement is the one from the utility.
Ten feet is the working minimum for anyone not qualified to work on the line, and that distance applies to the tree, the ladder, the pole saw, the aluminium extension handle, the hose you are holding, and the person standing beside you. It applies to the whole tool, not your hands.
The ground is part of the circuit
Current entering the earth from a downed conductor spreads outward in concentric shells, and the voltage between your two feet can be enough to kill. That is why the instruction near a downed line is to shuffle or hop away rather than stride, and why the safe radius is larger on wet ground than on dry.
Wet ground is the normal condition here after a storm. Which means the radius grows exactly when the risk does.
Things that become conductors without anyone noticing
A metal fence, a gutter and downpipe, a wet wooden fence post, a garden hose, a ladder, a satellite dish, a clothesline. Anything continuous from the vicinity of the conductor to somewhere a person is standing can carry current to them. Which is why the correct action is to move people away from the whole assembly, not just from the tree.
What “de-energised” actually requires
A neighbour saying the power is out on the street is not confirmation. Lights flickering is not confirmation. The confirmation is a utility crew on site, at the pole, with the circuit isolated and — for high voltage — visibly grounded. Until that happens, the tree stays untouched and the area stays clear.
If the tree is on a service drop to the house, the utility may isolate at the pole and leave the customer’s side to an electrician. That is a separate trade and a separate call, and it is worth knowing before the crew arrives.
What the tree owner can usefully do
Keep the driveway clear for the utility truck. Note the pole number if it is visible. Photograph the contact point from a distance with the phone zoomed, not by walking closer. And tell every person who arrives — including the contractor — that a conductor is involved, because the one thing that turns a routine job into a fatality is a crew that was not told.
The wider sequence for a fallen tree is in the main article. The trees that are merely storm-damaged, with no wire involved, belong to trees after storm damage.