Teen-Ager Electrocuted at Lake Miramar After Grabbing Power Line

A whimsical, late-night dip in Lake Miramar ended grimly Thursday when a 19-year-old community college student scaled a pump station tower, grabbed a live power line, and was electrocuted in front of six friends.

Michael A. Gallagher of North Park died after being knocked unconscious by a shock that lasted for several seconds as friends tried unsuccessfully to pry his grasp from the power line, relatives said.

The electrical wire fed a reservoir pump, which was marked by a small tower about 100 feet from shore.

About 1 a.m. Thursday, Gallagher climbed the tower intending to dive from the top, said the young man’s father, Edward Gallagher.

Although the reservoir is restricted to swimmers, relatives said Thursday that Gallagher apparently joined friends who regularly sneak into the city-owned lake and bathe late at night.

It was Gallagher’s first experience. Taller than most, Gallagher, at 6-foot, 5-inches, reached for an out-of-the-way wire to steady himself on his diving perch atop the tower.

From the water friends shouted warnings: “Don’t touch those!” “They’re live!” said Gallagher’s former classmate at Francis Parker School, Mike Allan.

Allan, who was at the lake, recounted the scene to Gallagher’s family.

Moments before the electrocution, Gallagher apparently poked at the line, put his fingertip to it, then grasped it without receiving a shock.

“See, it’s OK,” Gallagher was quoted as saying. “I touched it and it’s fine. Look, I’m touching it.”

Gallagher shifted slightly, and was electrocuted, said county medical examiner investigator Charles Kelley. The wire he held was a feed line to the pump; the voltage had not been determined, Kelley said.

The medical examiner’s investigation also had not determined if the original line groped by Gallagher was the same as the one he was electrocuted by.

“Whatever happened,” Kelley said, “being dripping wet didn’t help.”

Gallagher tumbled to a tower platform, and friends attempted to revive him until paramedics reached the 12-foot-diameter pump island by boat about an hour later.

Gallagher was pronounced dead at 2:19 a.m. at Mercy Hospital, Kelley said.

His friends at the lake were classmates at Francis Parker School until Gallagher was expelled before graduation last year because of disciplinary problems, Edward Gallagher said. They were reunited this summer after attending colleges in different cities.

“They were so happy to see each other again,” Edward Gallagher said. “They were just acting crazy, screwing around like kids do.”

Gallagher, a prominent local plastic surgeon, said his son began living on his own as he attended Mesa College. Michael Gallagher told his friends he wanted to transfer to UC Berkeley, where he would study education and become a teacher, his father said.

“He was pretty wild, but he wasn’t a problem kid,” Edward Gallagher said.

As he struggled to make sense of the death, Edward Gallagher stumbled first over emotions, then words, “I’m pretty mad. . . . You’d tell him one thing, and he’d do another.”