2 contractors electrocuted while working on New York power lines
WARWICK, Orange County (WABC) -- Two contractors died Monday morning after being electrocuted while working on power lines in Orange County.
It happened on Mount Peter in Warwick just before noon.
Officials say the victim were private contractors doing work for Orange and Rockland Utilities on the lines that cross the mountain, and they were electrocuted as they tightened a guy wire at the base of a transmission pole.
It is unknown exactly what happened, but there was a fire and both workers were killed.
"The guy wire became energized at some point for some reason, and that's in the investigation," company spokesman Mike Donovan said. "We don't know that reason, and I don't want to kid you to think we do."
Federal and state investigators will now look into what specifically energized the wires, which typically are not electrified.
The utility company has already started its quest for answers.
"We are impounding all the equipment so that we can get a look at it and take it back and study it and see what's going on," Donovan said.
Firefighters arrived on the scene first in response to a call about a brush fire, and video from NewsCopter7 shows the burned remains of the two-man utility vehicle used by the contractors -- described as veteran workers with plenty of on-the-job experience.
"We had shut the power down when we discovered the accident in order to access it and get access to the victims," Warwick police Lieutenant Thomas Maslanka said.
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