Tree Touching Hydro Wires in Vaughan?

You look up and see it: a maple limb resting on the line running to your house, or a branch swaying through the wires on the street. It looks like a small job. It isn’t one for you or for us until the utility has dealt with the line.

Which Lines Are Which

Three kinds of line run past most Vaughan houses, and each belongs to someone different.

Main Lines on the Poles

The wires along the street or the back lot line carry power to the whole neighbourhood. In Vaughan, Alectra Utilities owns and maintains them, and it clears trees around them on its own schedule. Only workers trained and authorized for line clearance should cut near these.

The Service Wire to Your House

The single line from the pole to your house is called the service drop. It is still part of the utility’s system. If branches are on it, call Alectra first and ask what they will clear and whether they can disconnect it for the work.

Cable, Phone and Internet Lines

Lower wires on the same poles often belong to the phone or cable company. They carry low voltage, but a branch can still pull them down or snap the pole hardware. Call the company that owns the line.

Why It Matters

A branch touching a live line can arc, smoulder and start a fire, especially in a dry August. In wind, a branch can rub through the insulation or drag the wire off the house. In an ice storm, like the one that hit Vaughan in December 2013, branches loaded with ice snap and bring lines down across whole streets.

Electricity doesn’t need you to touch the wire. It can jump across a short gap to a branch, a ladder or a metal pole saw, and wet wood carries current. That is why the rule is simple: if a branch touches a wire, nobody touches the branch.

What You Can Do Now

• Keep everyone, including kids and pets, away from the area under the wires.
• If a wire is down, sparking or lying on the ground, stay at least 10 m back and call 911 or Alectra Utilities.
• If the branch is touching but the wire is up, call Alectra and describe where it is. Photos from a safe distance help.
• Don’t use a ladder, a pole saw or a rope to move the branch.
• Don’t park under a heavy branch that rests on a line.

After the Line Is Safe

The utility clears what it needs to protect the line. Line-clearance cuts are made for the wires, not for the shape or health of the tree, so you can end up with a lopsided tree or a hacked limb hanging over the roof. That part is yours.

Once the line is clear or disconnected, we take care of the rest: the cracked limb over the garage, the branches scraping the eaves, the dead wood the storm left behind. Our work on branches over the roof covers limbs over houses, garages and decks, lowered on ropes so nothing lands on the shingles.

If the storm has also damaged the house itself, see our post on a tree that fell on your house for what to do first.

Signs a Tree Near the Lines Needs Attention

Even when nothing is touching yet, some trees near wires are trouble waiting for the next storm:

• A dead or bare limb hanging over the service wire
• A split fork above the lines, where two big stems meet with a crack between them
• A tree leaning toward the wires, especially if the lean is new
• Dead ash near the lines, which goes brittle and snaps in wind

Report trees threatening the main lines to Alectra. For limbs on your side of the service wire, call the utility to make the line safe first, then call us for the rest.

Preventing It Next Time

Fast-growing trees under or near lines keep coming back. Silver maples, Manitoba maples and willows put on a lot of growth each year. If a tree on your lot grows into the service wire every few years, ask yourself whether it belongs there. When you plant, choose small trees for spots under lines, and keep big species well away.

Older streets in Woodbridge and Thornhill, with mature maples and overhead wires along the back lot lines, see this the most. In newer subdivisions in Vellore Village and Patterson, most wiring is underground, so the problem is rarer.

Vaughan Rules

If a private tree with a trunk 20 cm or wider at 1.37 m above the ground needs to come down after storm or line damage, it still needs a City permit under By-law 177-2025. A dead or hazardous tree’s permit has no fee and no replacement requirement. Boulevard trees belong to the City: call Vaughan Public Works at 905-832-8585.

When to Call Us

Call the utility first. Once the line is safe, call or text (289) 444-0864 during our hours, 8am to 8pm, seven days a week. We come out the same day, quote the job on the spot, and clean up before we leave. Call 911 if anyone is hurt or a line is down.