Man electrified by fence (by Dana Yates, Daily Journal)
Power was cut to parts of Burlingame after a man was injured touching a mistakenly electrified fence near a Burlingame Caltrain construction site last night. He lived and was lucid enough to tell emergency responders he thought he was hit by a train.
Burlingame police responded to its first 911 call of a tree on fire at the Burlingame Train Station at approximately 6:39 p.m. and received a second one about a minute later from a woman witnessing a man having seizures? near the station. A responding officer saw the man down near a tree that was partially on fire, but was unclear how safe the area was because there were no clear signs of downed power lines or electrified items, said Burlingame police Cmdr. Mike Matteucci.
He kind of rolled out and one of our officers was able to reach in and pull him out,? Matteucci said. The man, reportedly in his 40s, was conscious and somewhat oriented.? There were no obvious electrocution burns, but paramedics assumed he suffered a jolt of electricity based on witness accounts and the burning tree near a fence at a construction site, said Central County Battalion Chief Drew Flinders. He thought he got hit by a train,? Flinders said. He was transported to Peninsula Hospital.
The man was sitting at a stone bench and table under a verandah of vines south of the actual station near South Lane. The table is within a few feet of the fence and the tree witnesses reported on fire, Matteucci said.
Trains were stopped at approximately 6:45 p.m. while Pacific Gas and Electric employees were called to the scene to cut the power and solve the problem.
Crews were working on a power line that goes underground at South Lane. The power outage affected a number of Burlingame Avenue and Broadway businesses, including a number of restaurants. It's one of the busiest days of the year and the 1100 block and part of the 1200 block, on the north side, was out,? said John Kevranian, owner of Nuts for Candy on Broadway. Customers were leaving restaurants where they made reservations to wait in line at other restaurants that had power, Kevranian said.
Caltrain began construction of its upgrades at Burlingame Train Station in June. At the time, Caltrain estimated the project to take 11 months.
A Caltrain representative did not return a call for comment.
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Additional article in the Examiner.

– Written by Fiona