UPDATE: Police identify the two men hospitalized after live wire accident
By: John Krinjak
Email: jkrinjak@abc6.com
Twitter: @johnkrinjakABC6
CRANSTON, R.I. (WLNE) — Two men were rushed to the hospital Thursday night after the ladder they were working on got tangled in the middle of live power lines.
28-year-old Rosebin Brito and 43-year-old Richard Mercedes, of Providence, were working on the roof of a home on Chestnut Hill Avenue, when the metal ladder tipped off the roof and landed on high tension lines.
“All of a sudden I heard a loud bang and the power went out for a second or two,” said eyewitness Manny Vitale.
Brito, who was on the ladder, received electric shock. Mercedes was burned from the electricity.
“The higher you go up on the pole, the more juice there is, so that’s where they got tangled. Electricity and aluminum is a conductor and the body’s a conductor,” said Cranston Deputy Fire Chief Stephen MacIntosh.
Brito fell to the ground, the wires energizing the ladder itself. Crews had to shut-off power while they responded to the victims and got them to the hospital.
Firefighters say windy conditions and the fact that the men were working in the dark may have been factors in all this.
“It looks like a tragic accident at this point,” said MacIntosh.
Brito is in critical condition and Mercedes suffered severe burns and lost all of his toes.
Both victims remain in the hospital.
©WLNE-TV / ABC6 2017
