Technology to keep lights on could help prevent wildfires

BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — B. Don Russell wasn't thinking about preventing a wildfire when he developed a tool to detect power line problems before blackouts and bigger disasters. The electrical engineering professor at Texas A&M University figured he might save a life if his creation could prevent someone from being electrocuted by a downed live wire. But fire prevention may be his product's biggest selling point in California and other places that have experienced devastating wildland blazes blamed on electrical equipment. "If we can find things when they start to fail, if we can find things that are in the process of degrading before a catastrophic event occurs, such as a downed line that might electrocute someone or a fire starting or even an outage fo