Man Electrocuted by Fallen Wire

A Silver Lake man who went into his backyard to investigate a hissing sound was electrocuted this morning by a downed power line, and his wife was burned trying to save him, authorities said.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, was killed at 5:23 a.m. when he stepped on the wire, apparently knocked to the ground by a falling palm frond, at his home in the 800 block of North Silver Lake Boulevard, Los Angeles fire spokesman Jim Wells said. His wife suffered second- and third-degree burns on her hands and was taken to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, Wells said.