Tree Worker Killed by Power Wire : Accident: His pruning saw touches line and conducts its electricity. Shutting off power and removing his body takes half an hour. Homeowner calls it ‘a nightmare.’

A worker trimming a back-yard magnolia tree was electrocuted Wednesday when he apparently touched a 12,000-volt electrical wire with his pruning saw, authorities said.

The body of Amador B. Ochoa, 25, of Costa Mesa hung in the tree for half an hour while utility crews scrambled to shut off the electricity to permit removal, police said.

Ochoa was working for Newport Tree Specialists of Costa Mesa, authorities said.

Officials at the business refused to comment on the accident, which occurred in the 19800 block of Bushard Street.

“It’s a nightmare,” said Jeanne Ryan, the homeowner who hired the trimming company. “I can’t believe it happened. . . . I came home, and I almost fainted when I saw all the cars.”

Ryan’s grandson, Thomas Miles, 22, was in the home with his wife, Andrea, 16, when the 11:15 a.m. accident occurred.

“We were watching TV when it went all blurry,” he said. “I knew right away what happened. I heard a thump.”

Southern California Edison employees were working a few blocks away and arrived within five minutes, a spokesman said.

The workers found the tree smoking and determined that it was still “energized” by electricity, said Ron Ferree, the utility’s Orange Coast District manager.

“He made inadvertent contact with the wire with his aluminum pruner,” Ferree said. The pruning saw is attached to a metal pole, which became a conduit for the electricity.

Police Sgt. Bill Van Cleave said the county coroner’s office has determined that the man was dead at the scene.

“It was just a tragic accident,” he said.

Neighbors alerted by ambulance sirens looked across their wooden fence to see what had happened and then gathered to express shock. They talked about a similar accident that occurred next door in 1986, when a 14-year-old boy was electrocuted as he touched a 12,000-volt power line while climbing a tree.

Kathie Buxton, a neighbor who remembered the earlier tragedy, said “the lights went down one octave” when that accident occurred.

Several of Ochoa’s colleagues were on the scene during the accident but said they did not see it occur or did not want to talk about it.

Afterward, workers stood near the white company van in front of the house in a “devastated” state, said Ryan, who added: “They were close friends working together.”

To neighbors who asked whether they could do anything, she said: “Just pray for his family.”