Fireman Is Severely Injured by Power Line
A Los Angeles firefighter was severely injured early Saturday when he was shocked by a high-voltage wire while he was investigating a reported fire in Hollywood, fire officials said.
Capt. Eric J. Greene, 52, a 28-year veteran of the Fire Department, was investigating reports of smoke on the 4th floor of a Santa Monica Boulevard office building, according to the Fire Department.
The electrical shock stopped Greene’s heart, but firefighters revived him with a defibrillator at the scene and took him to nearby Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center. He remained in critical but stable condition Saturday evening.
Though hundreds of Los Angeles firefighters are injured every year in the line of duty, life-threatening injuries such as the one Greene suffered are relatively rare, department spokesman Brian Humphrey said Saturday.
The smoke that brought Greene and other firefighters to the building was from a small blaze in an electrical panel on the roof. The cause is still under investigation.
Last year, rookie firefighter Jaime Foster was killed when she fell off a firetruck and it ran over her. She was the first Los Angeles firefighter killed in the line of duty since 1998.
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