Worker Installing an Electrical Cable Hit by 14,400 Volts

Getting zapped with 14,400 volts was enough to set his clothes on fire, but John Mays says about all he remembers “was one big flash.”

Co-workers put out the flames Tuesday, but the shock to his muscles kept the construction worker from letting go of an electrical transformer he had been working on.

“That’s when I came to. I told the guys to get some help. . . . I was stuck there for a while,” Mays, 47, said from Parkland Hospital in Dallas. He was listed in fair condition Wednesday, suffering mostly second-degree burns over 15% of his body.