15-year-old survives electric shock, 60-foot fall into brush fire after climbing power line, officials say

SUFFOLK, Va. (TMX/Gray News) — A Virginia teen is recovering after miraculously surviving an electric shock and a 60-foot fall that sparked a brush fire after he climbed a high-transmission power line.

The City of Suffolk Department of Fire and Rescue responded Friday evening to a reported smell of smoke. Firefighters arrived to find “heavy smoke” coming from a wooded area that they said was difficult to access and requested additional units.

Firefighters got to work extinguishing a brush fire that covered about an acre of woods near a set of train tracks that were temporarily shut down. That was when they located an injured 15-year-old boy on the ground.

The fire department said the boy was transported to a trauma center with “significant injuries and burns.”

Suffolk Battalion Chief and Fire Marshal Chris Cornwell told WAVY that the investigation revealed the boy had climbed a high-transmission power line and was shocked.

“The 15-year-old male juvenile had climbed the high-tension power lines there, the high-transmission power line, and came into contact with the energized electrical line, causing it to fall to the ground and light the brush fire, at which time he also fell approximately 60 feet to the ground, causing injuries to himself and falling into the grass, which was also on fire,” Cornwell told WAVY.

The boy was reported to be in stable condition and recovering at a hospital.

“He is really lucky to be alive, to have been [shocked] and then to fall that distance,” Cornwell said.