2020 Pending Review
Whose line is it anyway?
09/08/2003 Evansville, IND
This is a story of the time I worked at Evansville Fire Department in Indiana. Most of the fires that our team had to set out were quite small and not dangerous. However, the strangest case I’ve ever gotten was a report that two men were involved in an explosion outside of their houses. That was indeed the case, there were two men lying dead next to a power line. After neighbours were questioned, it was clear what had happened.
2 male neighbours were arguing about the power not working. They both accused each other of switching the powerlines and that one was lying about their electricity not working. They decided to set things right by swapping the powerlines back and raced to their electricity pole with a ladder and pruning shears. One man put a ladder on a pole and the other put a ladder on the one next to it and climbed up. Both men had the same plan so they quickly snapped the wire without thinking. They cut the wires almost simultaneously, killing both of them. It turns out that none of the men stole any wires, lightning struck an electricity pole a few blocks down.
Nobody else was hurt in the explosion.
Submitted on 03/06/2020
Submitted by:
Noah Y
Reference:
44 news (can’t find the article but I remember getting interviewed)