Climber, 17, Badly Burned Rappelling on Electric Tower

A 17-year-old Newbury Park High School senior was in very critical condition Monday night after being electrocuted by 220,000 volts while trying to rappel off a tower carrying Southern California Edison power lines near the Conejo Grade of the Ventura Freeway.

Michael Halsell received third-degree burns over at least 80% of his body while standing on a narrow beam on the 175-foot-high tower.

Halsell was about to rappel down a rope he and two climbing buddies had tied to the beam about 100 feet off the ground when he was electrocuted a little after 1 p.m.

“We just heard a huge explosion,” said Mike Palmer, 17, one of Halsell’s climbing partners.

The three had traveled a dirt fire road up to the tower, which stands on a rocky peak along the highway. They had climbed together before but had never rappelled off a power line tower together, Palmer said. But Halsell had rappelled off the tower previously.

“We didn’t want to go all the way to the Santa Rosa Valley or up above Santa Paula to climb cliffs,” he said.

Halsell had about a year of climbing experience, according to Palmer, who has been climbing for three years.

Palmer said he has known Halsell since the second grade.

At Newbury Park High School, which is just a few miles from the scene of the incident, classmates said that while Halsell is not that involved in school activities or a standout student, he is well liked.

“He’s a nice guy,” said Katey Tortorici, who sits next to Halsell in math class. “He has a lot of friends.”

At Sherman Oaks Burn Center, where Halsell was being treated Monday night, his friend, Al Williams, 19, said he and Halsell had rappelled off the same tower several times--the first time was three months ago.

“It’s a big rush because you can drop straight down,” Williams said in explaining why the friends used the tower for rappelling.

Waiting for news from the doctors, Williams said: “I hope he lives. I hope he’s OK. I just don’t know if we’re ever going to be able to hang out again.”

When the accident happened, Palmer said he had just rappelled off the beam and was climbing back up a ladder on the tower. Halsell either touched a coil leading off one of the power lines or simply got too close to the line and the charge jumped to his body.

The jolt of electricity ignited Halsell’s clothes and blew the change out of his pockets, welding the coins to the beam.

“It blew his gloves off, his shirt, his glasses, his watch melted,” Palmer said.

The shirt and gloves floated to the ground and started a small brush fire. Palmer and 17-year-old Seth Haglund could see black smoke coming from the beam where their friend lay. They thought Halsell had been killed.

“Then he started trying to climb down,” Haglund said. “He was still on fire.”

He was also going down the wrong side of the tower, using a ladder that ended more than 75 feet above the ground.

Halsell’s harness and part of his pants were also burning, and his hair and upper torso were black and smoldering, his friends said.

Worried that the disoriented Halsell would fall, they coaxed him back up to the beam, and Haglund ran about a mile to the California Highway Patrol weigh station for help.

Palmer said he wanted to go to the aid of his friend but was worried that he too would be electrocuted.

“I thought there was still some juice in the wires,” he said.

Neither of the friends knew what exactly happened or why Halsell was electrocuted.

Haglund, the novice climber of the bunch, said he had stayed on the ground, while Palmer had rappelled twice down the line and Halsell waited his turn. Halsell was supposed to make the last run down the rope. They were just about to go home when the accident happened, Haglund said.

“We were pretty much finished; Mike was just getting ready to come down,” he said. “I don’t know what happened. Maybe he got blown over to near the wires.”

The CHP closed down the northbound lanes of the Ventura Freeway for about five minutes while a rescue helicopter looked for a place to land.

When firefighters arrived at the scene, they had to wait about 90 minutes while a team of workers from Southern California Edison grounded the power lines.

While the rescue crews worked frantically to get to him, Halsell sat rigidly with his legs dangling over the edge of the beam, not moving. He sometimes moved his lips but seemed to have difficulty saying anything audible.

“We tried to talk to him, but I don’t think he could hear very well,” said Palmer, who seemed shaken and nervous.

Ventura County Firefighter David Pumphrey climbed up the tower and cradled Halsell in his arms while the rest of the rescue team jury-rigged lines and pulleys to wrest Halsell from the beam.

While Pumphrey held Halsell, the team hoisted both of them off the beam and lowered them to the ground.

“He was in shock, but he was talking,” Pumphrey said. “I guess that’s a good sign. But he was in pretty bad shape.”

Rescue personnel wrapped Halsell in a lightweight blanket to prevent hypothermia and to keep dirt out of his wounds, Pumphrey said.

“Burn victims are highly susceptible to infection,” he said.

Halsell was first taken by helicopter to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks.

Then, after being stabilized by emergency room doctors, he was loaded back into a helicopter and flown to Sherman Oaks Community Hospital Burn Center, where he was listed in very critical condition.

Doctors were working on him most of the evening Monday, said Dr. Peter Grossman, a burn center plastic surgeon who is treating Halsell.

The Sherman Oaks Burn Center is one of three burn centers in Los Angeles County that handle critically burned patients.

In Halsell’s case, doctors were concerned that his throat and lungs had also been burned, interfering with his breathing.

The first few days will be critical for Halsell, Dr. Grossman said. The doctors worked Monday night to stabilize the teen, ensuring that he could breathe properly, bandaging him from head to toe, and sedating him.

After the first day, doctors may begin a long and painful treatment regime that can include debridement--the scraping away of burned skin that, according to Grossman, can be a “nest for infection”--and in a few days skin grafts, surgery to attach skin from other parts of the body to the burned area.

“His chances for survival are not good,” Grossman said late Monday. “But statistics are statistics, and individuals are individuals. What he has in his favor is that he’s 17 years old and a healthy kid. If anyone can survive it, he can.”

Times staff writer Joanna M. Miller and Times correspondent David R. Baker contributed to this story.