A Georgia man suffered serious burns while climbing a utility pole to obtain power for his home, officials said.
Randy Joe Bellew “and his family had been without power for quite some time,” Madison County sheriff’s investigator Chris Guest told the Athens Banner-Herald. “He was running the house on a generator.”
Using an aluminum extension ladder, Bellew climbed the pole, apparently to tap into an electrical power source for the home, Guest said.
That’s when an electric jolt knocked him to the ground. Bellew was taken to an Athens hospital, then to a burn center at an Augusta hospital, the newspaper reported.
Guest said Bellew was injured not only by the electrical shock, but also the fall.
His condition was not known.
Unauthorized climbing of a utility pole is illegal, according to Georgia Power. However, officials said charges are not expected to be filed against Bellew.
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