Teen shocked in hunt for parak 
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Teen shocked in hunt for parakeet
St. Petersburg Times; St. Petersburg; Apr 12, 1999; CHRISTINA HEADRICK;BRYAN GILMER;
Abstract:
About 15,000 volts of electricity seriously burned Damion O'Connell when the 7-foot pole touched a charged component about 9 p.m. Saturday, sheriff's officials said. The fenced-in substation along U.S. 19 is a popular nesting spot, and O'Connell, of Bertland Way in Clearwater, wanted to get one of the lime-green baby birds to give to his girlfriend as a pet.
Also injured was a 40-year-old friend who went along on the parakeet expedition with his 15-year-old son. James Martin Sr., of Rosemont Street in Clearwater, was in fair condition at Tampa General, with burns between his ankles and knees. Martin's son, James Jr., was unhurt.
When O'Connell and Martin are released from the hospital, they will be charged with trespassing on Florida Power property, said Deputy Cal Dennie, Pinellas County sheriff's spokesman. Martin could also be charged with child abuse, Dennie said, for placing his son in danger.
Full Text:
Copyright Times Publishing Co. Apr 12, 1999
The man is in Tampa General's burn unit after he touched current with a metal pole, sending 15,000 volts of electricity through him.
An 18-year-old man on the hunt for wild parakeets severely shocked himself while using a metal pole to dislodge hatchlings from their perch at a Florida Power Corp. substation.
About 15,000 volts of electricity seriously burned Damion O'Connell when the 7-foot pole touched a charged component about 9 p.m. Saturday, sheriff's officials said. The fenced-in substation along U.S. 19 is a popular nesting spot, and O'Connell, of Bertland Way in Clearwater, wanted to get one of the lime-green baby birds to give to his girlfriend as a pet.
Instead, he suffered second- and third-degree burns over 50 percent of his body. He was flown to Tampa General Hospital, where he remained in serious condition in the burn unit Sunday night.
Also injured was a 40-year-old friend who went along on the parakeet expedition with his 15-year-old son. James Martin Sr., of Rosemont Street in Clearwater, was in fair condition at Tampa General, with burns between his ankles and knees. Martin's son, James Jr., was unhurt.
"That's just a little hobby they have," said Martin's wife, Pamela. "They like to go looking for those little baby Quaker parrots. I'm not saying where they went was right, but this was an accident."
Mrs. Martin said O'Connell had come over for a hamburger cookout Saturday when the men decided to look for a bird for O'Connell's girlfriend, a babysitter for the Martins' children, she said.
The monk or Quaker parakeets are South American birds imported as pets. They are about 1 foot long, counting their tails, and are green with gray bellies. They now breed in the wild, after birds escaped or were released over the past 30 years.
When O'Connell and Martin are released from the hospital, they will be charged with trespassing on Florida Power property, said Deputy Cal Dennie, Pinellas County sheriff's spokesman. Martin could also be charged with child abuse, Dennie said, for placing his son in danger.
"This is an unfortunate situation that occurred, and we feel bad for the families involved," Florida Power spokeswoman Mary Estes said.
The utility tries to keep people away from the substation where a 230,000-volt electrical current is transformed into lower voltage streams to north Clearwater and Palm Harbor subdivisions, Estes said.
"There are multiple barriers to prevent anyone from getting into those substations," she said. "The signs read 'Danger High Voltage' and 'No Trespassing.' The gates are locked. There is a 6-foot fence with three rows of barbed wire."
Dennie said the men entered through a gap in the rear part of the fence.
Sunday afternoon, about 60 of the brightly colored parakeets fluttered around the buzzing matrix of towers and wires, squawking and building their nests of sticks.
Estes said Florida Power routinely tries to move the nests to other areas to discourage the birds from returning. But a substation makes an alluring nesting site, she said, because it is warm and usually free from predators.
The monk is one of about a dozen exotic species of parrot that have established wild breeding populations in Florida, and it is the only one that builds a nest, said Stephen Pruett-Jones, an as-sociate professor of zoology at the University of Chicago. The other species live in cavities they find in trees.
The monk parakeet squawks loudly and is harder to train than other parrots, prompting many owners to release them, said Mark Spreyer, the executive director of the Stillman Nature Center in Barrington, Ill. He is among the first scientists to study the birds' life cycle.
"Some people like them and some people don't," Spreyer said. "Some people are trying to take them from nests, and other humans are letting them go."
Monk parakeets have flourished in the wild, with thriving colonies here, in Chicago, New York and in other U.S. cities.
The birds' ability to build large, colonial nests makes them able to live almost anywhere. The nests may be 2 feet wide and up to 5 feet tall and hold several nesting pairs.
"There will be several chambers," Spreyer said. "It's like a building, like a condo."
Spreyer said the birds are sold in Chicago-area pet stores for $175. Pet World and Feed Store, on 54th Avenue N in Kenneth City, once sold the birds for $100, said Brian Tavener, a salesman there.
[Illustration]
Caption: A wild parakeet sits on top of a beam within Florida Power's East Clearwater Substation on U.S. 19. (ran CITY & STATE, METRO & STATE); Photo: BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO, LISA DeJONG
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Sub Title: [SOUTH PINELLAS Edition]
Start Page: 1B
Dateline: CLEARWATER
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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Submitted on 09/16/2003
Submitted by:
Roy Owings
Reference:
St. Petersburg Times 4-12-99
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