Martin County worker cutting trees shocked, burned in Port Salerno
Laurie K. Blandford , laurie.blandford@tcpalm.com
4:35 p.m. EDT October 10, 2016
(Photo: PHOTO PROVIDED BY MARTIN COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE)
MARTIN COUNTY — A Martin County Parks and Recreation Department employee trimming trees Monday morning was shocked and burned by a power line, according to county, sheriff’s and Fire Rescue officials.
Rescue crews went to the 4400 block of Southeast Field Street in New Monrovia Park in Port Salerno and found a 47-year-old man who had been working on a lift had touched a power line and was burned, said Fire Rescue spokesman Dan Harshburger and sheriff’s spokeswoman Laurie Weber.
The man worked for the county and was pruning trees after Hurricane Matthew, said county spokeswoman Gabriella Ferraro.
According to the incident’s 911 call, a man called and said the following: “My boss has just been electrocuted. His shirt’s on fire. He’s up in a lift, and I can’t get him down.”
The caller said he couldn’t bring the lift down because he didn’t know how to do so. Yelling could be heard in the background.
The burned employee was flown to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami with traumatic injuries, Harshburger said. The man was conscious and breathing, Weber said.