Author -

Falling Phase

We had an ice storm in late February that was pretty severe. The Company said it was the worst one ever. Mike is the linemans name. He was working as a one man crew. Our title is Lineman Specialist. We had a lot of crews from other states in and Mike was assigned to be the one to lead them around and answer any questions they had concerning our system. For example, we have three distribution voltages in or immediate area, 4800 delta, 4800 wye, and 13,200 wye. Any way, Mike and three contract crews from Indiana were on their way back to the Service Center to pick up a new package of work when they came across a wire down. This was on a major street. They stopped the convoy in the curb lane of a 5 lane road and were looking at a circuit map. Their "scout," a fairly new planner, was on the cellular to our dispatcher when another phase came down. There was an angle in the lead where the wire came down and the conductor travelled horizontally 32' out of lead to hit Mike in the back. When he went down he landed on the wire. An apprentice sitting in the first truck didn't see the wire come down but he saw Mike on fire. He jumped out of the truck, ran to the hotstick bin and grabbed a shotgun. The way I heard the story, he couldn't see the wire or Mike due to the fire, arcing and smoke , but he went in anyway. He caught a glimpse of the wire and got it on the first try. he started to drag it in the clear and did but he didn't have the end. There was about a 30 foot tail that was flailing around. Once Mike was clear he dropped the stick and bailed out. While all this was happening, his Dad, who was running one of the crews was yelling at him to drop the stick and run. The rest of the guys were trying to put Mike out. He was literally on fire. Fortunately, there was a fire station with paramedics about 300 yards away. They were there in less than a minute and began dousing him with saline solution. They loaded him up and transported him to a local hospital. They stabilized him and medivaced him by chopper to the University of Michigan Burn unit in Ann Arbor. I've been told by many that it is one of the best in the country. He is currently breathing on his own, conscious, they have started skin grafts and they say he will by 97% recovered. That doesn't take in the scarring . He will be in the burn center for about 6 months. If you want to hear about a Hero, that Apprentice gets my vote, hands down. I don't have his name handy but I can get it. Well, I have to go. Hope that was what you were looking for. Sorry it is so brief.