Firefighters Get Electrocuted in Ice Bucket Challenge Fail

Another #ALSIceBucketChallenge has gone badly wrong, as four firefighters had to be hospitalized for electric burns and shocks after going too close to electric lines.

The two closest to the power line, Captain Tony Grider, 41, and Simon TA. Quinn, 22, had to be airlifted to the University of Louisville Hospital where they are being treated in the hospital’s burn unit.

Two other fighters were shocked by electricity coming down the vehicle’s ladder, Captain Steve Marrs, 37 and Alex Johnson, 28.

Grider remains in serious condition, but Quinn’s status has been updated from serious to fair.

The fighters were helping students of Campbellsville University in Kentucky pull off a mass ALS ice bucket challenge when the incident occurred.

They used a fire department vehicle to spray gallons of ice water onto the college’s marching band on a field below, but somehow their overhead bucket got too close to the nearby power leading to the electric shocks and burns on those operating the spraying machine.

Campbellsville Police Chief Tim Hazlette says,

“From talking with power company technicians, if you get within a distance of three or four feet, the energy that surrounds the high-voltage wire will actually arc over onto another object, in this case being the personnel occupying the bucket.”

One person has already died from the ALS ice bucket challenge [read here], we can only hope these firemen recover and come out of the incident alright, so their good intentions don’t turn into something tragic.