Man severs electrical line in Pablo

PABLO —A severed electrical line sent one man to the hospital and left much of Pablo without power during a Thursday morning construction accident.

The man, part of a crew digging fence post holes on the campus of the Salish Kootenai College between the nursing building and Two Eagle River school, apparently struck a key electrical line around 10:45 a.m., Ronan Fire Department volunteer Dan Miller said.

“They had dug the hole with a Bobcat and [the victim] was cleaning it out with a spud bar,” Miller said. “They had the line located but thought it was over more. [The victim] apparently thought it was a rock or root or something.”

The force of the explosion knocked the victim off his feet. He was seen walking around and talking shortly after but suffered scorching burns to his face and ended up extremely lucky, Miller said.

“It’s good that it knocked him back because if he continued to be in contact with the line he could have been electrocuted and burned a lot worse, also,” Miller said.

A Ronan ambulance transported the victim to a hospital after stabilizing him on a backboard.

The severed line, which was considered “major,” left the entire east side of U.S. Highway 93 in Pablo without power including the traffic lights at the intersections of Division St. and Pablo West/Clairmont Rd. Tribal officer Joe Plant was on scene directing traffic at Division St. and Hwy. 93. Mission Valley Power was on scene attempting to fix the outage.

Witnesses said they didn’t see what happened but certainly felt it.

“I heard a big boom, like an artillery shell going off,” Jesse Cutfinger, an employee at Two Eagle River school, said. “It was loud enough to hear from that far away.”

Cody Blaine was sitting in radiology class when the incident occurred.

“We were inside and it was a big ‘woosh’ sound as the power went out,” he said.

Miller said all things considered, the accident could have been much worse.

“I’ve heard big lines be cut before and it sounds like a stick of dynamite going off,” he said.

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