Hayden Lake Man Electrocuted While Climbing Tower Cable He Was Using To Hoist Load Touched Distribution Wire

A Hayden Lake man was electrocuted Monday afternoon while working on a communication tower near St. Maries High School.

Blake Lebo, 28, was flown to Kootenai Medical Center, where he died, said Benewah County Sheriff Joe Blackburn. Three other workers were not injured, he said.

Lebo was hoisting equipment up a cellular phone tower when the cable tethering the load touched a distributor wire owned by Washington Water Power, said Dana Anderson, a company spokeswoman. The distribution wire, which supplies power from a substation to a transformer, carried 14.4 kilovolts, she said.

It was not clear if Lebo was operating a lift truck or hoisting the equipment by hand.

Benewah County sheriff’s dispatchers received the call for help about 3 p.m. from a man working in a nearby building. The man told deputies he heard an electrical short, ran out to see what happened and used a cellular telephone to call 911.

Emergency workers dispatched to the scene were delayed several minutes when the man inadvertently gave an inaccurate description of the area, Blackburn said.

Lebo’s co-workers at Active Electronics started cardiopulmonary resuscitation when they deemed the threat of electrocution had passed. They were still tending to the injured man when an ambulance arrived, Blackburn said.

“He was still alive when the medics got there,” Blackburn said.

Active Electronics owner Rod Davis said he is still trying to determine what caused the accident and declined further comment.

, DataTimes