Three Seattle City Light workers jolted by power line
Jul 8, 2015, 2:16 PM | Updated: 6:09 pm
Three men were injured, one seriously, after a jackhammer came in contact with a power line at a Seattle substation Wednesday afternoon.
Power outages for 9,654 people were reported around the same time, according to Seattle City Light. The outage occurred at 1:56 p.m.
A Seattle City Light worker was thrown 20 feet at the substation at 23rd Avenue and East Pike Street, according to the Seattle Fire Department. The worker was transported to Harborview Medical Center in serious condition.
Paramedics transported two other people to Harborview after the explosion. One suffered first-degree thermal burns, the other had cuts and bruises.
Power was restored quickly. The amount of City Light customers without power at 3 p.m. was down to 2,413 and there were no reported outages by 6 p.m.
The jackhammer, suspended by an excavator, was being used to push down a ground rod. The jackhammer came with a 20,000-volt line, City Light spokesman Scott Thomsen said. The three men were “knocked around,” he said.
