Golden North United Van Lines driver Bob Hover was delivering a motor at the South Cushman car lot when the line caught on top of the 28-foot-long trailer he was towing and stretched until it broke.

"I heard a snap," Hover said. "When I heard the snap, I turned off the truck."

The line was lying between his cab and the trailer.

Both he and Heindl's customer Janet Curtis, a sergeant at Fort Wainwright, had to wait inside their vehicles while Golden Valley Electric Association workers turned off the power to the lines.

"I didn't feel like frying," Hover said.

Meanwhile, power was off to five businesses in the area, including Heindl's, for five hours.

"The truck caught the telephone lines, but consequently it pulled down a secondary power line," Golden Valley Electric Association spokeswoman Kathy Gappert said. "It wasn't one of the high-voltage lines, but it's still dangerous."

Clark Heindl, who co-owns the used car lot with his brother, Greg, sent all of his employees home while GVEA workers fixed the lines and replaced the pole that also had been broken.

Heindl said a customer's vehicle got a small dent, but otherwise no other vehicles sustained any damage.

Hover, who said this is his first mishap in the nine years he's had a commercial driver's license, said the lines were lower than the 13 feet 6 inches required in industrial areas. The trailer is 13 feet 4 1/2 inches tall.

"(GVEA) called us at the office and said there wasn't going to be any billing" for the repair of the power lines and pole, Hover said.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner