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
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