A man has died in Seattle after being electrocuted when he climbed a 200-foot tower and touched a high voltage power line. The Associated Press reported that he fell to a platform where his body was recovered by a Seattle Fire Department team.
It is not certain why the man climbed the tower. "We don't know why he climbed the tower," said police spokesman Renee Witt to the AP. "There's nothing to indicate it was something other than an accidental death from trespassing."
It was too dangerous for firefighters to go up the tower so the Snohomish County helicopter came in for assistance. They found the body on the platform.
A cap and cellphone were found hear the body on Friday said fire department spokesman Kyle Moore. He also said that there was on one at the scene who said they knew the man. The man's body is being examined by The King County medical examiner's office to identify the cause of death.
Firefighters responded to the scene after an initial report at about 12:30 a.m of a transformer fire on the tower. There was then a report of a witness seeing a flash of sparks and a man falling. The tower has more than 120,000 volt lines that go across Lake Washington Ship Canal in the Seattle Fremont neighborhood, reported the AP.
"City Light turned off the power through the lines so a fire department technical rescue team could climb up and recover the body from the platform about 150 feet off the ground. The body was lowered to the ground before 7 a.m. in a basket," reported the AP.
City Light spokesperson Peter Clarke said that the company was going to be reviewing the tower to see if they could make it less easy to climb. He also added that it was possible for a "very determined" person to climb the tower.
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