PITTSBURGH — A man was rushed to the hospital with second-degree burns after he was shocked by an electrical wire in Pittsburgh on Monday afternoon.
Pittsburgh police, fire and medics responded to a home on Greenfield Avenue for the reported shock injury and fire in the building.
Preliminary information from the fire department’s investigation found that two men were working on the gutters of the home when the gutters hit the main power line. This resulted in one of the men being shocked and sparked a fire inside.
Cody Boum, the other worker, told Channel 11 that they were making minor repairs on the home when things turned scary.
“I handed the gutter to him off the ladder, and I don’t know if he hit the electrical wire or what happened, but it was just an explosion,” Boum said. “He just fell down onto the scaffolding, and luckily, he didn’t fall.”
Boum says the injured worker caught fire for a moment and was screaming in pain.
Once Duquesne Light Company cut power to the home, firefighters and paramedics were able to bring the man down from the roof safely. He was taken to a hospital in critical but stable condition for the burns on his right side.
Another witness called the scene “horrifying.”
“I thought that cannot be real. I had to think this isn’t a movie, this is real life and that guy is in a lot of pain.”
Boum is just grateful the situation wasn’t worse.
“A little shook up. I was standing right next to him. I don’t understand how I am okay,” he said.
A teen girl was inside the home when the fire started. Firefighters escorted her out safely.
The fire was extinguished by 4:45 p.m.
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