Occurring forest fire or burning bushes beneath overhead transmission lines have caused breakdown disturbances of the system in many countries. In this study, experiments for flashover characteristics in the simulated condition of vertical power lines were conducted so as to investigate the reduction in insulation strength caused by combustion flame. As the results of an experimental investigation, it is demonstrated that flame can reduce breakdown voltages of the model lines according to height(h) of flame. The breakdown voltages were decreased with decreasing the height(h) of flame it can be seen that the average reduction of flashover levels, in comparison with the no-flame case, are 46.2[%] for h=9[cm] and 62.5[%] for h=3[cm] when ac voltage is applied.