Posted on 08/09/2017 4:16:01 PM PDT by rey
A man who climbed a power tower near downtown Santa Rosa on Tuesday shocked himself and fell about 80 feet, suffering major burns and injuries and sparking a large, brief power outage in the city.
The PG&E transmission tower is along the Prince Memorial Greenway and Santa Rosa Creek, near Sixth Street. About 1:45 p.m. the climber had gone up about 80 feet of the 100‑foot‑tower and was on a cross arm when he was shocked. As he fell he hit parts of the structure before landing in dry grass, where his burning clothing started a small fire, said Santa Rosa Fire Battalion Chief Mark Basque.
People in the area pulled him from the flames and used an extinguisher to put out the fire, Basque said.
The victim suffered burns to about 75 percent of his body, massive trauma from the fall and apparent injuries from the electrical shock, Basque said.
He carried no identification and initially was believed to be a teen. Fire and police officials Wednesday afternoon said they believed he was in his mid 20s. He was flown by medical helicopter to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
The transmission tower holds 115-kilovolt lines and the outage knocked out power to about 2,200 customers.
The tower has attracted other illegal climbers. About a year ago a man who climbed the tower was talked down by police officers, Basque said. Another person was in the tower in March and the utility company added barriers to try and keep people off, according to fire officials.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes! Love the part about the fire starting from his burning clothes.
Think that’s bad I had a nasty paper cut this morning.
He was trying to get a Darwin Award.
“Do we have an “idiot ping” on this site? “
Well, there are the Darwin Awards!
I hope he doesn’t have kids. The stupid gene is becoming more prevalent.
I got mr happy caught in my zipper
His family will file suit against PG&E in 3......2......1
Click the Pic
See, the guy was making a mountain out of a mole hill.
I’ll bet Mr. Happy was not happy about that.
Don’t blame him. He was bitten by a radioactive squirrel and got the squirrel powers of climbing things and acting as nature’s furry little fuse.
Only way it could have been better is if he killed himself, spared society the resources and possibly footing his medical bill for being a complete irresponsible jackass.
Awful lot of trouble to get a cheap perm!
Was he filming an episode of “Jackass”?
All that ... and he falls 80 feet ... and lives? Incredible.
80 foot fall and 75% burned. I doubt he survives.
Darwin award winner.
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