PDA

View Full Version : Consumers Energy Lineman Hurt



WCLR
08-25-2007, 02:43 AM
Utility worker hurt Consumers employee receives electric shock in mishap
Thursday, August 23, 2007

By Danielle Quisenberry

dquisenberry@citpat.com -- 768-4929

A Consumers Energy employee was in fair condition after he received an electric shock while working Wednesday morning in Summit Township.

Gerald Burman, 31, of Pleasant Lake likely touched a live wire or was hit by an electrical current as he and a crew repaired a power substation at Robinson Road and W. Main Street, Jackson County Undersheriff Thomas Finco said.

Finco said the electricity was not shut off -- as it typically would be when crews are working on the ground -- before the crew began working.

Burman was taken to Foote Hospital in Jackson, then driven by ambulance to the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor.

Finco said the Sheriff's Office received a call at 11:36 a.m. that there was an explosion heard by people who lived nearby.

Consumers Energy spokesman Terry DeDoes said the company was forming an investigation team to look into the incident.

About 8 p.m. Tuesday, there was a power outage in the same area that was believed to be caused by a short on the underground system, DeDoes said. About 84 customers lost power, and it was restored at 11:50 p.m. Tuesday, DeDoes said.

He said the company was still looking into whether the power outage and the accident are related.

Wednesday afternoon, about a half-dozen Consumers Energy trucks lined Main Street as several employees examined the substation and took photographs.

One employee, Tom Okoniewski, sat on the ground near the accident site, holding his head in his hand, clearly distraught by the incident. He declined comment.

A supervisor on the scene referred all comment to a corporate representative.


http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/index.ssf?/base/news-22/118787837540300.xml&coll=3

WCLR
08-25-2007, 02:46 AM
GUC worker OK after hit by tree limb

Listen to this article or download audio file.Click-2-Listen
By T. Scott Batchelor
The Daily Reflector

Thursday, August 23, 2007

A Greenville Utilities worker was resting at home Wednesday after being hit in the head by a tree limb Tuesday night.

GUC also restored electricity to the last remaining customers in the early morning hours Wednesday.

A fast-moving storm knocked out power to 15,000 Greenville Utilities customers Tuesday night and dropped a half-inch of rain in some parts of Greenville.

About 11 p.m. Tuesday, a utility worker was injured while clearing a tree limb off a downed power line in the neighborhood of Huntingtonridge Road.

Tony Cannon, assistant general manager of Greenville Utilities, said the man was released from the hospital Wednesday morning after a trip to the emergency room.

The worker was "just banged up" and suffered "no serious injuries" from the incident, he said.

"He was clearing the line, and the tension on line caused the limb to project, and it hit him when he cut it clear of the tree," Cannon said.

As for the outages caused by the lightning and wind, "I think we've got everything cleared up."

"Most of the storm-related damages from the first wave of storms that we had, most of those were cleared up by 11 p.m. (Tuesday)," Cannon reported. Power to about 100 or so customers affected by scattered outages was restored by about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Limbs and trees blown onto electric lines typically produce the most problems during severe storms, said Cannon.

"That's why we spend such a vast amount of time and effort tree-trimming," Cannon said of the agency.

The storm moved through Pitt County at about 40 mph, Hal Austin with the National Weather Service in Newport said Tuesday night. The weather station at Pitt-Greenville Airport recorded a wind gust of 39 mph, he said.

The majority of outages were in parts of Greenville, the Red Oak area, Winterville, Bells Fork, Frog Level, Belvoir and Stokestown.

A lightning bolt knocked out power at the home of Donald and Jane Harrell in the Bear Grass area of Martin County and shifted the house on its foundation.

"A good wallop ain't the word for it, son," Donald Harrell said of the incident, which happened about 10:45 p.m. as he sat on the porch of his 3783 Bear Grass Road home.

"All the lightning seemed to be gone, and the next thing I know, the house lit up in complete whiteness (then) blackness," Harrell said. Sitting about six feet from where he estimates the bolt hit the porch roof, the man was thrown into the yard, he said.

He crawled onto the porch and met his wife, who was crawling from inside, he said.

"Part of the foundation got blowed out from under the house," Harrell said. Floor joists were split, the refrigerator door blew open, and nearly everything was jostled off the walls inside the home, he said.

Brick steps leading to the porch were moved a couple of inches, and the lightning dug a trench between the porch and a pecan tree, he said.

"There's probably a lot of unseen damage," he said. Power boxes were fried by the jolt of static electricity.

"I don't know when the power will be back on," Harrell said.

He said he has a blister on his finger from holding a cordless phone when the bolt struck, but he and his wife are otherwise OK.

"You can say it was a hair-raising experience, and I don't have any hair," he said.

T. Scott Batchelor can be contacted at sbatchelor@coxnc.com and 329-9567.


http://www.reflector.com/local/content/news/stories/2007/08/23/0823GUCfollow.html