Virginia teen 'lucky' to survive electrocution, 60-foot fall into brush fire after climbing power line
The boy was reported to be stable and recovering at Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters.
A photo shows fire trucks that responded to a fire in a remote location of Suffolk, Virginia on May 1, 2026. (Photo Credit: City of Suffolk Department of Fire & Rescue)
A Virginia teen is recovering after miraculously surviving an electrocution and 60-foot fall that sparked a brush fire after he climbed a high-tension power line.
The City of Suffolk Department of Fire and Rescue responded at around 5:18 p.m. on Friday, May 1, to a reported smell of smoke in the area of Delaware Avenue. Engine 1 arrived to find "heavy smoke" coming from a difficult-to-access wooded area and requested additional units.
Firefighters got to work extinguishing a brush fire that covered approximately an acre of woods near a set of train tracks that were temporarily shut down. That's 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." At the time, fire officials said the incident remained under investigation.
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 electrocuted.
"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 the outlet.
"He is really lucky to be alive, to have been electrocuted and then to fall that distance," Cornwell said.
The boy was reported to be stable and recovering at Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters.
Reporting by TMX
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