Verizon lineman severly burned on National Grid property

[topgroove]

Utility worker burned when bucket hits line

The man was working in a bucket attached to a boom on a truck.



01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, July 19, 2006
BY GREGORY SMITH
Journal Staff Writer



PROVIDENCE -- A utility company worker suffered an electric shock and was severely burned yesterday afternoon when the work bucket of his truck apparently touched a wire that touched a power line.

The unnamed worker, identified by fire officials and the electric utility National Grid as a 35-year-old employee of Verizon Communications, was on fire when help arrived.

But firefighters initially were helpless, forced to hold off extinguishing the flames until they were sure the victim and the bucket were no longer electrified.

The shock "blew his shirt off and caught his pants on fire," said Deputy Assistant Fire Chief Henry Cochrane. When rescuers pulled up, according to Cochrane, the worker was twitching and afire, draped over the side of the bucket and over one or more wires.

He was semiconscious when taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where his condition was not immediately available. James Taylor, Fire Department chief of communications, said he suffered burns over 80 percent of his body.

The accident occurred on Oxford Street on the South Side, between Eddy Street and Allens Avenue, at about 3 p.m.

Although firefighters were wary at first, Cochrane said they became assured that the truck probably was not conducting electrical current.

A firefighter gingerly approached the truck and touched it in different places with an insulated rod called a "hot stick" that detects the presence of electricity.

"Then we realized the truck probably wasn't energized," Cochrane said, because the meter on the rod did not register any electricity.

Meanwhile, another Verizon employee apparently rushed to the accident scene from a Verizon depot about one-tenth of a mile away on Allens Avenue. Assured that the truck was not conducting electricity, the second Verizon employee reached into a control box on the vehicle and lowered the bucket so the flames on the victim could be put out with water.

The bucket was lowered with some trouble because a shelf that was extended from the bucket was hung up on the wires.

"It wouldn't drop because it was caught on the guy wire," Cochrane said. The shelf finally was dislodged, however, and was left hanging in the wires as the bucket came down. The underside of a yellow sun umbrella attached to the bucket was scorched black by the fire.

Cochrane said the accident apparently happened this way: The victim was working alone on a telephone line that carried no power, aloft in a work bucket attached to a boom on a truck. He moved his bucket and in the process the bucket brushed against a guy wire that helps to hold two nearby utility poles straight, making the wire more taut.

When the guy wire became more taut, according to Cochrane, it came in contact with a power line carrying what National Grid spokeswoman Debbie Drew said was 7,800 volts, and transmitted electricity to the bucket and the worker.

"It didn't give him the full [charge]," Cochrane said. "But it gave him a pretty good zap."

Asked about Cochrane's explanation, Drew said the sequence of events is unclear and National Grid will investigate. National Grid workers on Oxford Street found that the incident did not cause a loss of electrical power to neighboring buildings, according to Cochrane.

An investigator from the occupational safety division of the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training also came to the scene.

Barbara Santos, who lives in a house at 80 Oxford St., where the mishap occurred, heard a commotion.

"I heard somebody saying, 'Help me,' " Santos recalled, and she came outside. The call for help, she said, came from a passerby who wanted to aid the victim.

"It was terrible," Santos said. "He [the victim] was up in the basket. I could see the smoke."

The accident occurred outside a commercial building at 72 Oxford and Santos' house.

With reports from projo.com Staff Writer Steve Peoples.

gsmith@projo.com / (401) 277-7334

http://www.projo.com/metro/content/p...9.182031e.html

[loodvig]

I always wondered why Verizon has those steel boom trucks. You would think with the high voltages we have today they would buy fiberglass booms.

[Bull Dog]

I see two big problems with this accident if its repoted right. first what is a telephone guy doing in the energized zone. Two why dont firemen know its safe to spray energized equipment if you keep the spray fine. Ive done it my self many times. From the bucket and standing on the ground it dosent matter. The company that dosent train there employees anybetter than this is a bunch of losers. Version should know better. We have training for the fire service and one of the things we show them is how to put out a fire energize at 69kv. Only thing i can say is were getting careless in the effort to get her done. Get her done and everyone goes home is the only way even if it takes a little longer. I let the junior man do most of the work but when it gets hairy i strap the tools on mabey thats what we need to do. Then do it is all i can say. Need to slow down this sensless carnage!

[Trampbag]

“The company that dosent train there employees anybetter than this is a bunch of losers.” Bulldog


The company isn’t a bunch of losers: the employees are the losers – literally. Losers of limbs and life.

[Bull Dog]

Tramp your wrong about this one. Who goes up with a steel boom anywere contact with enegized wires is even remotly possible. Verizon does thats who. Now mabey there too stupid or mabey they dont care. I would think a man who is not a lineman should not be on a pole unless he has a insulated boom but hey that would cost so he must go in a boom that will kill. Thats his fault tell me i just dont get it. You can say all you want but the co is wrong period and i hope they pay! I dont understand how anyone can blame the worker on this one if the facts are as reported.

[Trampbag]

If my comments were construed as meaning the Verizon employee was at fault please forgive me. I in no way would ever say anything of the sort.

Any company who is not training its employees, especially employees not qualified for high voltage electrical work whose jobs take them anywhere near a high voltage system on the same structure, is criminally negligent in my opinion. My comment about untrained employees being the “looser” was an attempt at sick humour, and in no way is to be construed in any other way.

My apologies to the family and friends of this unfortunate person.

Our prayers are with him and his friends and family!

Brothers and Sisters,

Just caught a little of it on the tube, but it appears we lost another Brother and one seriously burned some where up in Illinois. Anybody got and more info??? Our prayers are with them all, as is our hope for fair treatment!

I am tired of the ignorance. I have seen those repeaters, cable boosters- ripped plenty of them of the poles- Adelphia stealing power every where.

We give the telephone guys at least 40 inches to work clear of even the secondary. But I see cable and telephone messengers jacked so tight, that the guys for the primary you can play jumprope. There is a lot of ignorance in these cable and telephone companies , they don't follow NESC rules. Their contractors that aren't union, get paid by their footage. And I use to get so mad when I built line, pretty as can be. And they would put those messengers up with that big 200 pair and coax, and that perfect sag for the primary gets all jacked up.

The training isn't there anymore. They get these young kids out of McDonalds and say hey throw this stuff up as fast as you can. Give them a three hour climbing lesson and go get it.

I know Verizon is probably not that way I don't know. Splicers and terminators are pretty well trained. But the guys that lash it, really put those guys in traps.

I hope he is ok.

[dungnfam]

This incident was talked about at National Grids weekly safety meeting yesterday. This Verizon Employee was holding an umbrella to shade himself from the sun while he worked. The temps were in the 90's that day. Unfortunately the umbrella came in contact with the energized line. Sounds like a total lack of training and understanding on Verizons and the employees part. I'm not blaming him for what happened but common sense should have come into play also. I heard he lost some limbs but will survive.