Four Firefighters Injured During Ice Bucket Challenge

[Anthony]

Four Campbellsville firefighters were injured in Kentucky Thursday afternoon while helping band members carryout the ALS ice bucket challenge on the campus of Campbellsville University.
The firefighters had raised the aerial ladder of the fire truck to dump water on the school's band members for a charity cold water challenge, said Campbellsville Police Chief Tim Hazlette at press conference.
Chief Hazlette said after the firefighters dumped the water on the students they started to lower the ladder into 'traveling position'. As the ladder was going down, Hazlette said the bucket apparently got close to the power line and the electricity apparently arced towards the firefighters.
"If you get within a distance of 3 or 4 feet, the energy that surrounds the high voltage wire, will actually arc over onto another object, and in this case being the personnel inside the bucket, Hazlette said.
The firemen were transported to Taylor Regional Hospital, where at least one was said to be in critical condition. A second fireman has been upgraded from serious condition to fair. The other two were listed as stable. No students were hurt during the incident.
Authorities say the incident knocked out the power for all of the city of Campbellsville, as well as the city of Greensburg.
[video=youtube_share;zG9JK4ix2bI]http://youtu.be/zG9JK4ix2bI[/video]

 

[Muthoni]

It is always sad when someone gets hurt when doing a good deed. I hope that the four firemen involved in the accident make full recovery to continue doing more good. Have you ever noticed that all bad things happen in a split second? We are told never to tire of doing good; their rewards are on the way.

 

[urbanletter]

Wow, what a horrific accident. The challenge is for a worthy cause but we don't want anyone getting hurt while performing it. This was definitely a freak accident. I hope the firefighters are ok and have a speedy recovery.